The Marauder's Era- First Year at Hogwarts
by exceptionallyordinarymarauder
Summary: Meet Sirius, James, Remus and Peter during their first year at Hogwarts
1. Chapter 1

Hello everyone and welcome to the first chapter of my fanfiction about the lovely Marauders. Since J. K. Rowling still refuses to write a book about them, I have just decided to add fanfiction to the ones that are already around. This one will deal with the Marauder's first year at Hogwarts. I hope you'll like it. This is my very first fanfiction, by the way, so please go easy on me. And English is not my native language, so if I have made some stupid mistakes, I'm sorry! Enough talk now. Have fun reading it! :)

Chapter One- The Train Ride

Sirius Black:

"Do tell, Kreacher. What's it like to cater to somebody else's will all day long? Kreacher, do this; Kreacher, do that; sounds just lovely to me."

Turning around and walking backwards so I could smirk at the small house elf in front of me, my grin grew even broader at the disgruntled expression on his face.

"Master ought to watch where he is walking or he will hurt himself." Kreacher's grumble was barely audible over the noise of the crowd around us. I simply shrugged, swinging my arms carelessly.

"Do I look like I care, Kreacher? I'm young, wild, free…, and proud of it. Whereas you are old and uptight. Plus, you're a grouch. So, what does it feel like, Kreacher? What is it like?"

Clearly annoyed, the elf glared up at me. "What is what like? What is young master talking about?"

"Being you. What's it like to have to spend all your life chained to some family, catering to their every whim and letting them boss you around? Especially if the family concerned is as deranged as mine. Haven't you ever craved to break free, Kreacher? To turn your back on them and walk away?"

Kreacher didn't even look at me, grumbling something that did not sound very pleasant under his breath. Bending forward a little and cupping a hand around my ear, I raised an eyebrow.

"Sorry, I didn't catch that."

Kreacher gave me a look filled with something very akin to loathing as he shuffled past the people surrounding us.

"Young master should not waste his breath on asking foolish questions or he will miss his train."

I rolled my eyes, sweeping my hair, which tumbled around my face, back with my hand.

"Oh, relax, Kreacher. We still have plenty of time. Quite eager to get rid of me, are you? I wonder why." Kreacher's only reply was an annoyed grunt; keeping his eyes firmly locked on his feet.

"You didn't answer my question, Kreacher. What's it like, serving a family of slimy toe rags?"

This time he did look up, the look he gave me even darker than before.

"Young master should not talk about his family like that. They are just and honourable and wise."

A derisive snort escaped me. "Are we talking about the same family, here? Because the people I'm thinking of are cruel, unjust and plain mad." And that was still putting it nicely. I could think of quite a few other choice words to call them, but I didn't think Kreacher or any of the people surrounding me would much appreciate that.

This time, Kreacher actually stopped to glare at me ferociously.

"Now, you listen…" I didn't hear him finish what was bound to be a most tantalizing speech in defence of the Noble House of Black because at that precise moment, I felt myself hitting something solid with my back. That, and the startled squeak behind me, caused me to whirl around, coming face to face with a boy my age, who was staring at me with big, startled eyes. My eyes travelled from the expression on his face to the pile of scattered books lying at his feet.

"That's what you get for carrying a whole library around in your hands." I bent down quickly and started to pick up the books when I heard the other boy huff indignantly.

"Well, not everyone has their own house elf to carry their stuff for them. Besides, real smart to be walking backwards at a train station filled with people."

Library Boy: One, Sirius: Zero. I couldn't help the grin that spread across my face at that reply. I got up again and handed him a couple of the books.

"Fair enough. How about it, while my house elf," at that I cast a dark look at Kreacher who glowered right back at me, "will be carrying my things into a free compartment, I'll help you carry your stuff." The boy appeared to be quite taken aback at my offer, staring at me for a moment with his mouth slightly open, before finally shrugging nonchalantly. "All right, then. Thank you."

I might just like this kid.

"I'm Sirius, by the way. Sirius Black." I stretched my free hand out towards the boy, giving him a bright friendly smile. "And before you ask, yes, my name matches the colour of my heart." At that, the boy's lips twitched slightly before finally pulling into a light smile. "Sounds fitting. I'm Remus Lupin."

We gripped each other's arms and followed Kreacher, who had abandoned his sullen silence in favour of dark, barely audible muttering. Only snippets reached our ears, but they were more than enough to make me role my eyes and smirk.

"Pleasant, isn't he. And before you ask, yes, he's always that way. Don't think I've ever seen him smile, actually… let alone laugh."

"…insolent… will tell Mistress… disgrace… clumsy dolt…"

Turning my head to Remus and giving him an innocent wide-eyed look, I muttered in a mock whisper: "I reckon he doesn't like me very much."

Remus snorted in reply, his lips twitching dangerously again.

"I reckon you might be right about that."

Ignoring the chaos surrounding us with all the kids milling about and their parents fussing over them, I pushed my way through the crowd, following Kreacher. Huffing a relieved sigh as we stepped onto the train and found an empty compartment, I dropped the books unceremoniously onto a seat and flopped down next to them. "Well, Remus Lupin. As we already know one another, we might as well share a compartment. What do you say?"

Remus stacked his books carefully and deposited them with the rest of his luggage. "Sounds good to me." Turning around, he glanced at me and raised an eyebrow at seeing me sprawled over two seats, getting comfortable already.

"Don't you want to say goodbye?" I raised my eyebrows questioningly in reply, my lips pulling into a sardonic little smirk. "To who? To Kreacher? But he's right over there… speaking of… oi, Kreacher!" The elf, who had busied himself with stowing my luggage away, turned around and gave me a glare.

I gave him my sweetest, most charming smile." Thank you. Now get out."

After another moment of flat-out glaring at me, Kreacher finally bowed his head.

"As young master wishes. Does young master wish Kreacher to deliver any messages to his family?" His eyes narrowed into slits at my derisive snort.

"Hm… let me think… How about… Go to hell? But I'm afraid you won't consider this an adequate message, will you? No? Then do get out now, I've seen quite enough of you today."

Without a backwards glance at me, Kreacher turned around and stalked away, muttering something under his breath that sounded suspiciously like "ungrateful little swine".

"I can hear you, Kreacher! You have a nice rest of the day as well."

When the elf didn't deign to reply, I turned my eyes to Remus, who looked like he was having quite a hard time suppressing a grin.

"The two of you seem to get along really well." I smiled at his sarcasm and propped my feet up on the chair opposite me.

"Nah, that's all just for show. Trust me, deep down, Kreacher is my biggest fan."

"Yeah, right." Remus seemed to have intended to add something but a soft knock on the door interrupted him.

"Remus, dear, I'm so sorry we got caught up. It's only that we haven't seen everyone in quite a while and got a little carried away." A woman with the exact same light brown hair as Remus was standing at the compartment door, smiling at him lovingly. Next to her appeared a man, who was heaving a suitcase into the compartment, while Remus, whose face had broken into a wide smile at the sight of them, stepped towards his mother. "It's quite alright. Sirius here helped me carry my books."

Both of his parents' eyes came to rest on me and they gave me a nod and a smile. They obviously intended to introduce themselves, when the shrill sound of a whistle cut through the air.

"Oh my goodness, it's time already! Remus, my dear, promise me to take care, all right. And write us, every chance you get." Remus' mum pulled him into a tight hug and despite my overall great mood, I could feel my throat constricting a little at the sight and chose to stare out of the window instead while Remus and his parents said their hurried goodbyes. Only moments after the Lupins had disappeared, the train started moving.

So this was it. I was finally on my way to Hogwarts. My lips immediately curved into a smile at the thought. I had been waiting for this particular moment for so long. Finally, I would be away from my family… even if I had to return for the holidays, of course, but it was ages until they started.

How long did Narcissa say the train ride to Hogwarts took again? Oh, never mind. I could hardly wait, a feeling of exquisite excitement flooding me. Feeling as if I might just burst if I didn't took my mind of the time it would take to actually get there; I turned to Remus, my knees jiggling impatiently.

"So, any guesses as to what house you'll be in?" Remus, who settled himself down into one of the seats opposite me, had just been glancing out of the window with a wistful expression as well, probably trying to catch a last sight of his parents. Must be nice to be so close to your family. I wouldn't know.

"I don't actually. Guess I would be ok with pretty much everything."

I grimaced. "Even Slytherin?" Not waiting for a reply, I rambled on.

"If I could choose a house, it would certainly be Gryffindor. Those where dwell the brave at heart, does have a nice ring to it, doesn't it? But the chances of actually getting into Gryffindor are slim to none. It's unlikely that I will end up anywhere else than Slytherin, every single member of my wretched family has been there. So I guess the odds are against me here. Never mind, I'm just so glad to finally be away from the whole lot of them. So glad, that I'm finally on my way to Hogwarts." I practically bounced in my seat.

Remus' eyebrows had wandered upwards during my little rant. "Do you always talk so much?" His voice sounded amused, though. Grinning, I shrugged.

"I guess. I'm just very excited, this makes things even worse, I guess."

Remus nodded and answered simply. "Me, too."

A knock on the door made the two of us look up at the two boys standing at the door, one of them seemingly hiding slightly behind the other. "Excuse, but everywhere else is full. Can we come sit with you?"

I gave the two of them a wide grin and gestured at the four empty seats remaining.

"Of course, come on in." As soon as they had settled into their seats, I held my hand out for the one who had spoken to shake. "I'm Sirius, by the way."

The other boy's lips started to twitch slightly and gripping my arm, he pulled up an eyebrow, his eyes glinting with mischief. "Seriously?" Rolling my eyes, I burst into laughter at his bad joke, joined by the other boy's hearty chuckles. When I cast a look at the other two from the corner of my eye, I saw that Remus was trying very hard (and failing) to conceal a grin as well whereas the fourth boy merely sat there, casting us anxious looks.

"I think I might just like you." Accompanying my declaration with a grin at the other boy, I raised an eyebrow. "And do you have a name, smart guy?"

"I'm James and I think I might like you, too. You laughed at my stupid joke, you can't be that bad."

"Gee, thanks."

James shook Remus' hand as well and then gestured to the anxious boy.

"That's Peter, by the way. If you haven't already guessed as much from his deer in the headlights look- he is pretty nervous. Or so I've gathered since I don't think he has uttered more than his name yet."

I waved at the boy. "Hi there, Peter."

Peter raised his head and stared at me for a second before uttering a squeaking sound, which I interpreted as a hello. Remus looked at the boy sitting next to him and gave him a warm smile.

"Don't worry, Peter. We're all really nervous; you're not the only one."

"He doesn't look nervous." Surprised at actually hearing Peter speak, I glanced up and saw him shooting me a quick look.

"What, Sirius? Oh, trust me; he is nervous as well. As a matter of fat, he's been rambling and bouncing around like a mad man for minutes before the two of you entered."

Peter gave me another shy look and I smiled at him reassuringly and nodded.

"He's right, you know. I' mean, I'm so excited I'm finally off to Hogwarts, but I'm also scared. But don't tell anyone, all right? Don't want my reputation as the tough guy ruined before I have even stepped foot on Hogwarts' grounds."

That actually managed to make the shy little boy crack a bit of a smile and sit up a little straighter.

"Anyone up for a game of Exploding snap?" James glanced around at the rest of us with an expectant smile, beaming at my instant nod.

"Uh, sorry, but what is that?" My head snapped towards Peter again.

"You've never heard of Exploding Snap before? It's only one of the most amazing…Wait, are you Muggle-born?" Peter shook his head. "No, I'm half and half but for the longest time my parents had thought that I might be a Squib, therefore they raised me like a Muggle."

"Darn, I always wanted to be friends with a Muggle-born, would piss my mother off to no end. But well, I guess having been raised as a Muggle will do as well, you can teach me all about them. So, Peter, from this moment on, we are friends."

"Charming", muttered Remus from behind his book but despite his sarcastic tone, his lips twitched a little. Before I could retort, though, there was a light knock on the door again, making all of us look up. The little girl standing there visibly cringed at our attention, letting her dark red hair fall over her face in the process.

"Any chance I could sit here?"

Her voice sounded a bit funny and when I got a closer look at her red-rimmed eyes, which were still glittering with unshed tears, I couldn't help feeling a pang of sympathy. Nobody should look this miserable on their way to Hogwarts.

"Yeah, sure." James gave her a brief smile and by an unspoken agreement, none of us commented on the tears in her eyes. James briefly introduced all of us, but as she didn't seem to pay much attention and was still fighting tears, we decided to leave her alone and started to introduce Peter to the world of Exploding Snap instead.

When we were right in the middle of a game, the compartment door slid open again and a small, skinny boy with overlong black hair, who was already dressed in his school robes, came in. His eyes were fixed on the girl, who had her face pressed against the windowpane. Without a word or glance to spare for us, he flopped down into the seat opposite her.

She glanced at him for a second and then looked back out of the window.

"I don't want to talk to you." Her voice still sounded all choked up.

"Why not?" There was an anxious note in the boy's voice and when I gave the two of them another furtive look, he was scrutinizing her with an expression of worry on his face.

"Oi, Sirius. Pay attention!" James' voice snapped my attention away from the two of them and I focused on the game once more. They kept talking but we didn't pay them much attention until the boy's statement "You'd better be in Slytherin", made James' head snap up and turn in their direction for the first time.

"Slytherin?!" His voice sounded positively incredulous and a slight crease had appeared on his forehead. "Who wants to be in Slytherin? I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"

James' eyes met mine and he raised his eyebrows in question. I could not help the pang of pain I felt soaring through my chest. Just great.

"My whole family have been in Slytherin." And expected me to continue the tradition, I added silently in my head.

"Blimey", said James," and I thought you seemed alright." I couldn't really tell whether he was kidding or not but then I thought of the way my mother would react if I didn't end up in Slytherin and got sorted into another house. At that thought, I could feel my lips spreading into a grin.

"Maybe I'll break the tradition. Where are you heading, if you've got the choice?"

James lifted an invisible sword, declaring solemnly, "Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart. Like my dad."

I grinned slightly at this display until a disparaging sound made both of us turn towards the dark-haired boy.

"Got a problem with that?" James' eyebrows nearly hit his hair as he was staring the other boy down.

The latter shrugged. "No", he answered even though the slight sneer on his face clearly said otherwise. "If you'd rather be brawny than brainy…-"

"Where're you hoping to go, seeing as you're neither?" I interrupted him, very happy at seeing his smug little smile disappear immediately. The nerve of that guy! Who did he think he was?

James burst into laughter and even Remus and Peter had uttered little snorts of laughter. The girl, though, got to her feet and shot both James and me a disgusted look.

"C'mon, Severus, let's find another compartment." With her head held high, she marched past us, while both of us imitated her lofty voice and James tried to trip the guy as he passed. What did she say he was called again? Snivellus, something along those lines. "See ya, Snivellus", I called after him cheerfully, as the compartment door slammed shut behind them.

"What was that you just called him?" James glanced at me curiously.

"Snivellus. Didn't she just call him that?" A snort from behind Remus' book made me turn in his direction. He had let his book sink a few inches.

"Severus. He's called Severus."

I shrugged. "Snivellus. Severus. Sounds the same to me."

Remus shook his head and raised his book again, yet not quick enough to conceal his grin.

"Snivellus." I turned to look at James who wore a thoughtful expression on his face. Then he glanced at me and gave me a beaming smile. "I like the sound of that. What a git!"

I nodded vigorously. "Yeah, the nerve of that guy. He didn't even greet us when he came in here. Just sat down without a word."

James snorted and then shook his head. "Well, let's not waste our time talking about Snivellus, we'll find a way to pay him back for his attitude later."

A slight rattling sound from the corridor made my head snap up in interest. "What's that noise?"

The other three looked up and listened as well, and then we heard a voice call out, "Anything from the trolley?"

"FOOD!" I jumped up with a roar, making Peter squeal in fright and Remus drop his book, hastily pushed past Peter- half-crawling over him- and sprinted towards the door.

"Food, food, FOOD!" I stormed into the corridor, looking wildly around me, searching for the source of the noise.

"Wow." Remus' dry statement was muffled through the door. "Not mad at all, is he?"

A chuckle I was pretty sure came from James answered him and then the latter spoke up as well.

"Barking, but I sort of like him."

A grin spread across my face at that and my eyes finally found the trolley and the woman pushing it. Practically skipping in anticipation, I made my way towards her, making her beam at me.

"Well, hello dear. What can I get you?"

I let my eyes roam the trolley greedily and, thinking of the others, I started to grin. "Some of everything please. Thank you." After I had paid for the multitude of sweets I could barely carry back to our compartment, I banged against our door with my shoulder since my arms were full.

Unfortunately, I was not quick enough to pull away again and when the door swung inwards almost instantly, I lost my balance and toppled forwards, throwing my purchases in every direction in the process.

"OW!" I howled as my elbow hit one of the seats at a particularly painful spot. For a moment, I just lay there, pretty much spread-eagled across the floor, glaring at the offending seat.

"For heaven's sake, Sirius! Are you ok?" I glanced up at Remus' concerned question and saw him quickly making his way over to me.

"Yep. Stupid door. Stupid chair." I glared ferociously at both of the offending objects, still in my awkward position on the floor. There was a moment of silence, then the other three all burst into fits of roaring laughter. Scowling, I looked up at them and then, I couldn't help bursting into laughter as well. For a few moments, all we did was laugh and I could feel a great part of the anxiety that had been eating at me since this morning melting away.

Still chuckling, Remus held his hand out to me and helped me to my feet again. I pushed a hand through my hair and rubbed my elbow with the other, grinning at them.

"Alright, mates. Glad to have you all in stitches, makes for a good start, doesn't it? And as it seems, I've decorated our compartment in the process." The sweets had flown in pretty much every direction.

"Blimey, Sirius. Are you planning on eating all of this yourself?" James bent down to retrieve a liquorice wand, tossing it onto the table.

"I don't think even I'd be able to eat all of that. I had meant to share with you guy, but now that I think about it…" I let my voice trail off, grinning evilly.

Peter stared at the sweets with wide greedy eyes and even Remus was looking at the floor with a hopeful expression. James just grinned, probably suspecting where this was going.

Clapping my hands, I shook out my hair and declared "All right, finders keepers. Go!"

A few moments later, we sat around the table laden with sweets, munching contentedly.

"Ok, Sirius. I sure hope you'll break your family's tradition because I definitely like you!"

James threw a Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Bean my way, which I caught easily with my mouth, making Peter break out in cheers. Grinning and munching on the bean, I raised my thumb and then grimaced slightly.

"Ugh, always these pleasant little surprises." God, this taste was foul!

"Which taste did you get?" asked James with a knowing grin. I shrugged, shuddering.

"Honestly, James? I'm not at all sure that I want to think about it."

"What are you guys talking about?", Peter looked at us questioningly, oblivious to what we were talking about. Giving James and Remus a conspiratorial look, I handed Peter the Every Flavour Beans. "There, have a try."

Peter obediently grabbed the bag, pulled one of them out of it and put it into his mouth without even glancing at it. Stealing a look at the other two, I could see that they were already fighting laughter.

Peter stopped chewing, seemed to freeze for just a moment and then raised his eyes to look at us.

Raising my eyebrows and trying hard not to laugh, I asked "You alright there, Peter?" At that, he jumped up.

"Water… water, need water… Now!" With that he raced out of the compartment as if his pants were on fire, reducing us to gales of laughter again.

"What do you think it was? Pepper? Chili?" James smirked in the direction Peter had disappeared.

"My money's on chili." I grinned, taking a bite out of a pumpkin pasty.

"Same here." Remus helped himself to another chocolate frog, causing me to raise my eyebrows at him.

"I'm starting to see a theme there, Remy." He glanced up at me, raising one eyebrow in question.

I gestured at the empty wrappers of chocolate frogs in front of him. "That was like… what… your sixth chocolate frog?"

He shrugged. "So what? I love chocolate."

Without a second glance, he put the card onto the table, munching on the frog. James cast a look at the pile of Chocolate Frog Cards in front of Remus and then back up to the latter's face.

"Say, Remus. You don't seem particularly interested in the cards. Any chance I could have them? I collect them, you know." Remus, his mouth full, gestured at the cards in a 'help yourself' manner and then learned back contentedly, reaching for his book again.

"Do you think it'll be long 'til we arrive?" Peter was basically clinging to the window, trying to see anything through the pitch blackness outside and failing.

"I hope so, it's been ages." I had been bobbing up and down in my seat for roughly an hour now, unable to hold still anymore. The closer we got to Hogwarts, the more nervous I got. It felt like my chest was constricting, cutting off my air supply. What would happen there? And what did I want to happen? My wretched family expected me to be sorted into Slytherin like them and the chances were slim to none that I would be sorted into another house.

But I didn't want to be like them. I didn't want to be sorted into Slytherin, to have people react the way James did upon hearing that name. Sure, there were probably loads of nice people in Slytherin as well, indeed, I knew for a fact that not all of them were as bad as my parents or their stuck-up friends. My cousin Andromeda for one, she was in Slytherin as well and she was pretty much the kindest person I knew. Her two sisters however, god, they were a much different story.

Breathing out sharply through my nose, I leaned back and closed my eyes. What would happen if I did get sorted into Slytherin? I would be separated from the friends I had made on the train ride, couldn't share a dormitory with them and probably wouldn't even have classes with them. Would they even want to talk to me anymore? James, in particular. He had made his aversion to Slytherin House crystal-clear before.

"You all right there, Sirius?" When I opened my eyes again, I saw Remus and James looking at me closely whereas Peter took a bit longer to tear his eyes away from the window.

I gave them a short smile that probably came out more like a grimace and then shrugged.

"Nervous, I guess. Aren't you?"

Remus nodded whereas James shrugged.

"I'm actually much more excited than nervous."

A sharp knock on the door made us turn our heads to see who it was. I instantly groaned when I saw the two girls, one with pale blond hair, the other's pitch black. My dear cousins obviously couldn't even let me get to Hogwarts in peace even though I was very likely going to be stuck in a common room with them from now on.

I saw the other guys' surprised looks at my reaction but I didn't explain, instead just crossing my arms in front of my chest and trying to fix a bored expression on my face.

"We're nearly there, Sirius. You'd better change into your robes." Narcissa gave me a smile for good measure, but it didn't reach her eyes. We didn't really get along. I thought she was an arrogant stuck-up bitch and she had told me quite often enough how immature and ridiculous she considered me. Her sister Bellatrix, however, was even worse. It wasn't enough that she actually looked very much like my mother, she was just as much of a crazy bitch as well. Whenever we met, we spent most of the time either glaring or snarling at each other.

Keeping my eyes fixed on Narcissa, I gave her a curt nod. "Good to know." My body language practically screaming for them to leave, I looked away. But unfortunately, this message didn't seem to reach them. When I turned to glare at them again, I saw Narcissa gazing at the table covered in sweet wrappers in disdain and then she let her gaze sweep over my companions.

"Who are they?" She turned her eyes on me again inquiringly.

"None of your business. Anything else?"

"Don't you take that tone with her, you insolent little…" Narcissa interrupted Bellatrix by grabbing her hand and pulling her towards the door.

"Let it go, Bella. You know how he is, there's no need to get worked up about it." She glanced back at me. "Put on your robes. We'll see you later. And remember, whatever you do, you are a Black. So behave like one and don't dare embarrass the rest of us, understood."

"Bye!" My voice was practically a snarl, which earned me another eye roll.

Remember, whatever you do, you are a Black. Gah, how often had I heard that statement before? I was so sick of it.

"Charming", snorted James sarcastically and shot me a curious look. "Who are they?"

I grunted, rolling my eyes. "You hereby had the honour of meeting Bellatrix and Narcissa Black. Bellatrix is in her seventh, and fortunately last, year at Hogwarts and Narcissa is a fourth year."

"You seem really fond of each other." James' smirk finally managed to make me smile as well.

"I hate them. Especially Bellatrix, that mad cow." With a sigh I reached for the dress robes I had tossed over my suitcase. "Well, you heard them. We'd better get changed."


	2. Chapter 2 Hogwarts

Chapter 2: Hogwarts

Narcissa had not been exaggerating. We had barely changed when the train came to a stop.

So… this was it. Clutching all of our belongings, we stepped outside together and glanced around with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension.

"Firs' years this way!" I turned around at the sound of the booming voice ringing through the babble of the other students and my eyes found a huge man with a mop of coarse wild hair and a fierce beard. Add that to quite an enormous stature and he might have been really intimidating if not for the broad smile stretching across his face. Glancing at the other three, we made our way over towards him with a number of other first years.

"Well, hello everyone! I'm Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts. I'm in charge of taking ye up to the castle. We'll go by boat, but firs' we need to walk a little. Now, follow me."

We trotted after him for a few minutes and suddenly, as we rounded a corner, there was a collective intake of breath. Struck speechless, I stared at the huge castle looming on a high mountain above us. The lights inside of it were on, making it glow in the distance. Without really knowing why, I felt my throat constricting and swallowed audibly before casting a look at Remus next to me, who was staring at the castle just as awestruck as I felt.

Feeling my eyes on him, he turned his head to look at me and I could tell by the look in his eyes, that he knew exactly what I felt right now. With a smile that probably came out a bit tremulous, I lightly bumped my shoulder against his, making him give me a smile in return.

I could hear James and Peter whispering excitedly on the other side of Remus and felt sort of glad that the latter did not seem to feel the urge to disturb the moment by talking, either. We just walked on silently, side by side, the only ones silent amid a babble of voices, each lost in his own thoughts. Funny enough, that I had been struck speechless for once, I, who usually never stopped talking.

"Here we are. So, four people to a boat, everyone. No need to hurry, there's space enough for everyone. Go on." Hagrid pointed at a number of boats waiting on the shores of a gigantic lake, glittering in the moonlight and the light of the castle. Once again, I swallowed audibly, staring at the lake and the castle looming above it. I was sure that I had never seen anything remotely as beautiful as this. So this was to be my home for the next seven years. Unbelievable, but true.

"What's wrong with you two, did someone hit you with an Immobilus Charm or why are you frozen to the spot?" James squeezed between Remus and me, slinging his arms around both our shoulders and steering us forward.

By unspoken accord, we met up with Peter at the water's edge and when the four of us clambered into a boat, I found myself behind James and with Remus behind me. During the whole of the boat ride, I couldn't bring myself to tear my eyes away from the castle. For more than a thousand times, I had imagined this particular moment, Hogwarts looming in front of me. Well, what could I say… the reality beat the imagination by far!

As we went through some sort of tunnel and saw a little harbour approaching, James turned around to look at us and asked with a grin "Struck speechless, are you? What do you say, shall we liven things up a bit?" He gestured at the other boats filled with students surrounding us, all seeming to have fallen into a reverent silence, staring at the castle or at the dark water.

My lips pulled up slightly at this suggestion. "What do you have in mind?"

James grinned and shrugged. "This boat ride has been pretty boring so far, don't you agree?" With that, he grabbed the edges of the boat and started to make it sway with all his might. Chuckling, I followed his example, making the boat sway dangerously.

"Guys, what are you doing? Stop it…Now! GUYS!" Remus gripped the edges of the boat tightly while yelling at us, Peter squealing loudly behind him.

James turned around and gave me a mischievous grin and we both put even more effort into it… until the boat finally tipped over. With the four of us screaming (Remus and Peter with terror, James and me with delight) our boat toppled over with a lurch, making us fall into the dark, icy water.

"Drat, this IS cold", exclaimed James, shaking his wet hair after reaching the surface again and grinned at me, swatting water my way. I retaliated in kind, the two of us splashing around before James' eyes suddenly grew wide with surprise and he opened his mouth to say something.

I, however, didn't hear what he had meant to say since somebody had grabbed me and pushed me underneath the water's surface, keeping me there for a moment despite my struggling before finally letting me up again.

Spluttering, I shook my wet locks out of my eyes and glanced around to see who had just attacked me, my eyes coming to rest on Remus, who was glaring at me before giving James an equally dirty look. "I'm so going to kill you for this. Both of you."

"Oh, c'mon Remus. It was fun, wasn't it?" I shook my drenched hair, spraying Remus with droplets of water, making him scowl even harder.

"Fun? FUN? This water is freezing and who knows what lives in its depths?" James rolled his eyes at that. "Oh, go on Remus, don't be such a bore. Live a little." With that, he sent a splash of water in Remus' direction, hitting him squarely in the face and starting an epic splashing fight, which was joined after a minute or two by Peter. Our breathless laughter and yelps echoed through the night until they were interrupted by a sudden shout of "Oi! What do ye clowns think yer doing"

We turned around to see Hagrid, who took up one whole boat by himself, coming towards us with the last surge of first years, all of them staring at us with wide eyes.

Grinning broadly, I shouted "The water just looked irresistible, we couldn't resist taking a little bath. We ought to look nice and clean during the Sorting, shouldn't we?" Hagrid couldn't resist a hearty chuckle, but before he could reply, my eyes fastened on one of the boats behind him. There were only two people in it, but they looked very familiar. They were pretty much the only ones who didn't pay us any attention. When I turned my head to look at James, the malicious look on his face told me that he'd seen them as well and had had the same idea. Our eyes met, identic grins spread across our faces and with a few quick strokes, we were right beside the boat.

"Hello there. We meet again. Nice night for it, isn't it? Care to join us?" I grinned at the redheaded girl and her black-haired friend, gripping the edge of their boat.

The girl wrinkled her nose in disdain. "As if. Go away." The boy just snorted, giving us a contemptuous look. James met my eyes again, his own twinkling with mischief.

"That's too bad. But we do think you two look in need of cooling down a little. You can thank us later." And with that, we tipped their boat, bursting into laughter at their frightened squeals. As soon as their heads popped back up through the surface of the water again, we started to splash them, causing both of them to wail in anger.

"You immature idiots!" the girl screamed, her eyes flashing furiously.

"See you at shore!" I gave them both a cheerful wave and then swam towards the shore with James right behind me, chuckling heartily.

Remus and Peter had already gotten out of the water, both of them shivering violently. Peter looked delighted though, and despite trying to glower at us, Remus couldn't hide his twitching lips either, when he helped us out of the water.

"Got us a couple o' troublemakers here, have we?" I glanced up at Hagrid towering over us but as he couldn't hide a grin of his own, I simply smirked at him cheekily and gave him a thumbs-up. "You bet!" Hagrid shook his head with a chuckle and then trotted off to help the girl and Snivellus out of the water.

"Now, does your fantastic plan have a follow-up? Because it's cold and I'm freezing." Remus glanced inquiringly at both James and me. The two of us just shrugged,though, making him throw his hands up in surrender and roll his eyes.

"Why, why, why. Hasn't even stepped foot into the castle yet and has already caused loads of trouble, my dear cousin. Good to see you, Sirius." Another shadow fell over us, though this one was a lot smaller than Hagrid's.

"Andie!" I jumped up and bounded towards my cousin who hastily retreated a few steps.

"Oh no, you don't! You're soaking wet! You can hug me later." Andromeda's big brown eyes sparkled with barely suppressed laughter as she looked us over.

"You lot look like drowned rats!" Chuckling, I turned around to Peter, Remus and James who were all looking curiously at Andromeda. "Guys, meet Andromeda, my cousin and sister to the two banshees we met earlier. She's alright, though, the nasty gene seems to have skipped her. Andie, meet James, Remus and Peter. Andromeda's smile turned into a little bit of a smirk as James hastily tried to flatten his wet hair and then gave her what he probably imagined to be a charming smile, winking at her.

She laughed and shook her head. "Well, I would shake your hands but well…"

"Andie, you wouldn't know any drying spells, would you?" I gave her my best puppy dog look at which she attempted to fix a stern expression on her face.

"Now, now, Sirius. I am a prefect, I am not supposed to condone behaviour such as this, let alone help you. Yes, quite right, I should let you walk in there, dripping all over the carpet and shivering in front of the whole school. It would serve you right!"

"Andie, PLEASE!" I blinked at her innocently with my most charming smile. Rolling her eyes, she pulled out her wand and pointed it at Peter, whose nose was slowly but surely turning slightly blue from the cold.

"Alright, the things I would do for my favourite cousin. But you owe me for that one, you hear me Sirius?" I saluted and felt my body relaxing as warmth enveloped me and my clothes felt comfortably dry again.

"Friends of yours, as well?" Andromeda nodded in Snivellus' direction, at which both James and I uttered a snort. "Definitely not!"

She shrugged. "Well, then I'm guessing you won't be very pleased to hear that I'll be off to dry their clothes as well. I'll see you lot later. Sirius, at least try to stay out of any more trouble, alright?" Walking backwards, she pointed her wand at me threateningly, at which I rolled my eyes, and then she gave all of us a smile, winking at Remus when he thanked her before walking away.

"She in Slytherin, too?" James' question made me tense up immediately. Blimey, for a minute there, I had actually forgotten about the sorting. I only had time to mumble a response to James when Hagrid bellowed "Follow me everyone, we're late already." He cast us a dark look but chuckled slightly. As we reached the castle door, it swung open before Hagrid had even raised his hand to knock and a woman with black hair pulled up into a bun and clad in emerald green robes looked at him impatiently, her hands on her hips.

"What's the hold-up, Hagrid? Everyone's waiting."

Hagrid looked at her apologetically. "Sorry Professor McGonagall. Only there was a sligh' incident involving a few students falling in the lake. It appears we've got us a few lively one's this year."

She groaned at that. "Well, then I can only hope they won't end up in my house, I only just got rid of the last ones." Her eyes shifted towards us, a stern expression on her face.

"Good evening. I'm Professor McGonagall. Follow me please."

The castle was just as stunning on the inside as on the outside. The halls were lit with torches and there were paintings and curious artefacts everywhere. I would have grinned at Peter gaping at everything around us with his mouth hanging wide open if I didn't feel sick with anxiety by now.

Finally, we reached a small chamber at the end of the hall. As every one of us first years was crowded inside, Professor McGonagall turned around to face us.

"Welcome to Hogwarts, everyone. Before the start-of-term-feast, you will be sorted into your houses. This is a very important ceremony, for your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your hose, sleep in your house dormitory and spend time in your house common room.

The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin after the founders of this school and each and every single house has its own noble history and has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are here at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose points. I would like especially those of you responsible for the incident at the lake to bear that in mind." She let her shrewd eyes roam over us, stopping briefly at my face and taking in my guilty grin, her eyes narrowing slightly. Guess I was busted. After a moment, she looked away again, continuing her speech.

"At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honour. I hope every single one of you will be a credit to whichever house you get sorted into. As we are already late, let's not waste any more time with talking now –"

She was interrupted by a short squeak from the back. Curious, I turned around and stared in awe at the transparent creatures floating into the room, talking animatedly amongst themselves, a few of them waving or winking at us. I had been told about the ghosts on several occasions, of course, but it still was amazing to see them in person for the first time.

Professor McGonagall cleared her throat and all eyes snapped back to her. "Form a line, please."

There was quite a bit of bustling and pushing involved as well as a constant stream of excited babbling.

Closing my eyes for a moment, I took a deep breath and tried to tune them all out. I felt distinctly sick now, just wanted to get the Sorting over with. At least I would be among the first to get sorted, I certainly didn't envy James and Peter for their last names.

"Alright, come in, everyone!"

As we followed Professor McGonagall through the huge double-doors looming in front of them, I could barely feel my legs anymore, trying to focus on my breathing. It certainly would not do to pass out in front of the entire school. The collective gasps around me made me glance up as well and somewhere in the back of my mind, I registered the stunning beauty of the Great Hall with ceiling enchanted to look like the sky and its multitude of candles floating over the four different tables, where the rest of the students were sitting.

These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets. At the top of the Hall was another long table, where the teachers were already seated.

McGonagall was leading us up there, turning us to face the rest of the students in the hall, whose faces looked slightly eyrie because of the flickers of the candles.

I dimly registered that the first table on the right had to be the Slytherin table. I could see Andromeda sitting there, giving me a wave and an encouraging wink. This did not make me feel any better, though. My stomach felt like I'd swallowed lead. I hated not knowing what was about to come, what the actual Sorting was going to be (since not even Andromeda had let anything slip on the subject) and still feeling oddly torn at the idea of joining my cousins at the Slytherin table.

Breathing in deeply through my nose, I glanced at Professor McGonagall as she placed a three-legged chair in front of us, with an old worn hat on it. It looked extremely shabby and I couldn't help pondering its meaning when it burst into song. I couldn't really focus on the words, though, as my thoughts were racing. There was something about the four houses and about the founders of Hogwarts but as my mind only took in bits and pieces of the song, I couldn't really tell what it was all about. Only the last bit of the song stuck in my mind. Apparently, the hat was responsible for the Sorting.

Everyone applauded as it had finished but I couldn't get my hands to move, it was as if I was frozen, my pulse pounding through my whole body. When McGonagall called the first student forward to be sorted, I closed my eyes again, feeling myself shaking slightly. Just great!

Suddenly, I felt a cold hand enclosing my icy one in its palm and looked up startled to find Remus next to me, giving my hand a reassuring squeeze. When I looked to my other side, I could see James gnawing his lip and Peter clasping his hands in front of his chest, shaking even worse than I did.

"Guys…" My voice was barely audible and shaking quite a bit. All three of them gave me quick look.

"Promise you won't hate me after the Sorting. I'm not like them, I'm not like the rest of the Slytherins." I was pretty sure they could hear my unspoken words "I don't want to be in Slytherin.".

Remus squeezed my hand again and he was also the one who answered.

"Who cares what house you're in, as long as you're still Sirius." James nodded and gave me a quick smile. "He's got a point there, you know."

"Besides…"murmured Remus quietly beside me, so only I could hear him "there's a good chance I'll be sorted into Slytherin as well." I cast him an incredulous look and was just about to ask why, when Professor McGonagall called "Black, Sirius".

My stomach dropped and I could feel the blood draining from my face. Once again, I was frozen. Oh no, oh no, oh no. I was so not ready for this.

Another squeeze of my hand made me jump and then I could feel both Remus and James pushing me forward with a whisper of "Good luck" from Remus.

Professor McGonagall's eyes fell upon me and I must have looked dreadful since the stern look in her eyes seemed to soften a bit as I slowly made my way forward, registering the cheers coming from the Slytherin table at the sound of my last name.

I shot a quick glance back at James, Remus and Peter. While the latter seemed frozen to the spot himself, both Remus and James gave me a smile and a thumbs-up.

With a deep sigh, I met Professor McGonagall's eyes and sank down on the chair as she placed the hat upon my head with a light, encouraging smile at me before the hat dropped over my eyes and everything around me disappeared in darkness. Here we go.

Then, suddenly, I heard a voice.

"Ah, another Black. Well, I know just what to do with you…-"

"NO, DON'T YOU DARE!" The thought rushed through my head as an immediate response.

"Excuse me?" The voice sounded quite taken aback but with a definite hint of curiosity in it.

"Sorry," I immediately thought "but please, PLEASE. I don't want to be in Slytherin."

"Are you sure? You could be great, you know. A great powerful wizard."

"No. No. NO! I don't care. I don't care about being great, I'm not like them. I'm just Sirius. Plain Sirius. "

A slight chuckle came from the hat.

"Well, I guess I was bit too quick to judge you at first. Let me see… determination, there is, quite a lot of it, and quite a bright mind. Oh, yes, very bright… and a certain disregard for the rules, to put it nicely. Had a little swim in the lake, did you?" Another hearty chuckle.

"And plenty of courage and strength, well, with that family of yours, you're going to need it. Especially after this. But I do think you'll be able to deal with it, you're a rebel at heart. No, you are not a Slytherin, that's true… so better be … GRYFFINDOR!"

The hat's yell rang out loud and clear over the Great Hall as Professor McGonagall pulled it off my head and I sat there, frozen to the spot, staring at the Slytherin table, whose members had already risen in anticipation.

Now seemingly everyone in the Great Hall seemed to stare at me and not a single sound was to be heard.

Suddenly, the silence was interrupted by a loud whooping sound behind me.

"All right, Sirius!" James' voice rang out and his cheering and clapping seemed to be joined by Remus and after a few more seconds the Gryffindor table joined in as well, even if a bit hesitantly.

I was still frozen to the chair, meeting Andromeda's eyes, which were wide and full of surprise and disbelief. To her right, Bellatrix and Narcissa were both staring at me as if I had grown another two heads.

Heated whispering filled the whole hall, especially emanating from the Slytherin table. I certainly had the undivided attention of the entire Great Hall.

"I need you to move now, Mr Black. We need to continue with the Sorting." I only dimly registered Professor McGonagall's statement as the hat's shout kept ringing in my ears. "Better be… GRYFFINDOR! Gryfffindor… Gryffindor."

"Mr Black? Mr Black? MR BLACK?" I finally looked up at McGonagall, still in a daze.

With a sigh, she gave me a light push so that I slid off the chair and nearly lost my footing. Grabbing my shoulder, she steadied me, squeezing my shoulder lightly before letting me go.

"Go join your house table, Mr Black."

She was about to turn around and call for the next student to come forth, when I whispered anxiously "Excuse me, Professor?"

She paused and turned back towards me. "Yes, Mr Black?"

I met her eyes, praying I had heard the hat correctly.

"Did I dream or did that hat truly say… Gryffindor?" Her lips twitched slightly at that.

"It did indeed, Mr Black, you heard correctly." At that, I could feel a wide beaming smile spread across my face as an ear-splitting "Whoop Whoop" rang from my mouth and I whirled around to beam at James, Remus and Peter, before practically skipping to my table. The whole hall was still filled with gales of laughter at my reaction as I flopped down onto the nearest empty seat. Well, almost the entire hall… the Slytherin table remained silent, and when I looked up, I saw my cousins glaring daggers at me while Andromeda wore an expression that seemed a mix of amusement and worry. She gave me a smile when my eyes met hers, but I could still see the anxious look etched on her face.

That was enough to make me plummet back down to earth. Bloody hell! I got sorted into GRYFFINDOR! Not only did I not get put into Slytherin, but into the house that had been its arch enemy for ages, the house my parents and the whole lot of my family loathed. My mother would kill me! She would absolutely kill me.

For once, I was not entirely sure if making my mother angry was such a good idea.

When I glanced up and at the rest of the table, I realized that pretty much everyone was studying me curiously. As was to be expected of course since I was the first Black ever in the history of our family not to be sorted into Slytherin as everyone around me seemed to be aware of thanks to my family's notoriety.

I gave them all a smile and waved, receiving a few nodes and smiles in return before everyone focused on the sorting again. Nevertheless, I had noticed quite a few looks of suspicion. Well, couldn't say I blamed them. They knew the rest of my family after all. I shot a dark look at Bellatrix over at the Slytherin table.

Focusing on the Sorting again myself, I realized that it had already reached the letter J, so it shouldn't be too long before it was Remus' turn.

And indeed, two people got sorted into Ravenclaw, then McGonagall's voice called out "Lupin, Remus." Remus exchanged a glance with James and then stepped forward, looking a bit peaky around the nose, yet a lot more confident than I had been.

He gave McGonagall a brief smile before sitting down. It barely took a second after the hat had been placed upon his head for it to shout "GRYFFINDOR".

A loud cheer erupted from my mouth as I jumped up in delight, clapping and hooting excitedly as Remus made his way over to me with a big smile, shaking his head at me with a chuckle.

"Settle down, you lunatic!" Then he laughed and threw his arms around me in a hug as soon as he reached me. We had both been so scared about the Sorting that it felt like a boulder had just toppled of off both of our chests. I was hyped up with adrenaline that I didn't even register the fact that he was hugging me for a moment and I could feel myself go tense for just a second as my brain caught up with the action. It seemed that I had automatically done the right thing, hugging him back. I didn't think anyone except for Andromeda had ever hugged me before and even that had only been like three times in my entire life. Funny how natural it felt. Once again, I could feel my throat constricting tightly and a wave of affection for Remus swept me. As we let go of each other and sat back down, grinning at each other, I could feel my eyes burn slightly, hoping only that Remus didn't notice. He couldn't possibly know how much his hug had meant to me.

As I had regained my bearings again, I noticed another familiar face at the Gryffindor table a little further down the line, the redheaded girl, who seemed to be quite downcast, her eyes fixed on her friend who wore a similar disappointed expression on his face.

Finally, the Sorting reached P and both Remus and I sat up straighter in anticipation as Peter's name was called. He sat on the chair for what must have been five minutes at the very least, the longest the hat had taken to decide all evening, before he was finally put into Gryffindor. With a disbelieving grin, he stumbled towards us, followed quickly by a very proud looking James.

We couldn't believe our luck to have all four of us sorted into the same house. I clapped Peter's shoulder and gave James a high five across the table.

"Well, well, I guess we couldn't have hoped for that to turn out better. Gryffindor, huh, Sirius? Guess you did break your family's tradition, all right." James grinned at me and I gave him a hearty thumbs-up.

"Mommy dearest will be so delighted." It came out all sarcastic and mocking but inside, I could feel my stomach giving a lurch. Oh dear, I was just so glad not to have to witness her reaction when she found out. Poor Regulus. I sure hoped he happened not be in the room with her when she got the message or his eardrums were sure to receive permanent damage.

Suddenly, silence fell over the Great Hall, making us look up. Dumbledore, the Headmaster, had gotten to his feet, letting his eyes roam over the sea of students in front of him. I had seen Dumbledore before, but never from up-close and I had to admit, that this way, he was even more impressive with his white beard and long white hair and his twinkling blue eyes hidden behind glasses. Despite his impressive air, there was also a sense of mischievousness and air of playfulness about him.

"Welcome, welcome to another year at Hogwarts. As you are probably starving, I won't bore you with a long speech. Just have a good year and now… let the feast begin. Tuck in, everyone." Applause and cheering filled the Great Hall, replaced by an awed murmur as the plates on the table suddenly filled with food.

"Good Lord, I think I'm about to burst!" I leaned back in my chair, one hand on my stomach, indeed feeling slightly nauseous. The multitudes of pudding following the delicious main courses had been my doom.

"Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if you did. You must have gobbled down half the food on this entire table yourself. With a little help from Remus." James shook his head at us, incredulously.

I shot Remus a mischievous grin and raised my glass of pumpkin juice in a mock-salute, a gesture immediately imitated by him.

"Well, we are growing boys after all, aren't we?" James just grinned at that, his eyes roaming the hall.

"It's so great to finally be here, isn't it?" His voice sounded a bit hushed as he said that.

All four of us nodded. My glance strayed over towards the teacher's table. Dumbledore was just laughing heartily at something McGonagall next to him had said, leaning over towards the tiny little teacher next to him, presumably letting him in on the joke.

Apart from these three, I registered Hagrid, right next to the tiny teacher, a woman with a tumble of wild locks and a cheerful smile next to McGonagall, three other women and three other men.

"That man at the end of the table must be Professor Slughorn, the head of Slytherin House." The other three glanced at the teachers as well, focusing on the plump man who was just tucking into his pudding with delight, proudly portraying the Slytherin colours in his dressing.

"Do you know who our head of house is?" I turned to look at James. He nodded.

"It's McGonagall. She teaches Transfiguration." A grin spread across my face.

"What was that she said about hoping not to end up with the ones responsible for the incident at the lake? Well, too bad."

James grinned in delight. "Didn't she say she only just got rid of the last couple of troublemakers? That must have been Fabian and Gideon Prewett. Well, what say you, gentlemen, shall we follow in their footsteps and uphold their legacy as troublemakers?"

I raised my cup. "Cheers to that. Count me in." James grinned at me approvingly and then our eyes shifted towards Remus and Peter. Remus sighed, shaking his head in defeat.

"We have barely just arrived and the two of you are already on a mission to become the school's next grand troublemakers. How about we get settled in first?"

I shook my head energetically. "Nah, that's overrated. So, Remus, you in or out? And what about you Peter?" The latter shrugged and then nodded. "Guess I'm in. But I have to tell you, I'm rubbish with pranks." James clapped a hand onto his shoulder.

"Don't worry, Peter. We'll sort you out."

Now all of our eyes focused on Remus. "Remus?"

He sighed, covering his face with his hands and finally glancing up with a wry grin.

"Well, since your prank involving the boats was just plain boring, I'm guessing you'll need a mastermind. So, count me in." Laughing, I clapped him heartily on the back, ruffling his hair affectionately. Pushing me away with a laugh of his own, Remus shook his head in mock desperation.

"What the hell did I just get myself into?" I bumped my shoulder into his, grinning madly.

"Just the best seven years at Hogwarts you could even imagine." James raised his glass.

"To that I toast! So, Gentleman, let's raise our glasses to our noble mission."

Grinning we imitated him and toasted. I could feel my heart swelling with happiness as I looked around at the three of them, taking in James' broad confident grin, Remus' warm yet slightly guarded smile and Peter's happy yet still slightly shy one.

I was very well aware that my family would be most disgusted with my being sorted into Gryffindor and that the consequences were certainly not to be pretty but for just this moment, I didn't let myself care about that. For right now, right at this moment, as I took in my friends' happy expressions, I was positive that I had never been happier in my whole life than right here, with them. I finally felt like I belonged. And what a great feeling it was!


	3. Chapter 3 The Howler

Chapter 3: The Howler

When I opened my eyes the next morning, I could feel an instant smile spreading across my face at the sight of the red and gold drapes around my bed. It had not been just a dream. I really was at Hogwarts, I really was a Gryffindor and I really had the fortune of sharing a dormitory with the four friends I had already made on the train yesterday. Moving the drapes aside to have a quick look out of the window told me that it still had to be very early since it was not yet entirely light out. Flopping back down on my bed and passing an arm across my eyes I let the events of the past day float through my mind again. After the feast, the Gryffindor prefect whose name I had already forgotten had led us up what had felt like hundreds of staircases until we reached a portrait of a very corpulent lady in a bright pink dress, who had smiled at us sleepily and had requested a password, which I did not recall, either. Hopefully one of the other guys would.

As there were no other first year Gryffindor boys other than the four of us, we had found out that we would be sharing a dormitory, much to our delight. Besides us, there were six girls, the redhead among them. The dormitory itself was very roomy and had a bathroom as well.

We had all been very tired after the feast, which had been closed by another speech by Dumbledore, in which he had told us about the Forbidden Forest being off-limits (duh, as if the name was not enough of an indication. And besides, I was sure that sooner or later, this particular rule would not stop us from entering it. Only made things more interesting), about what had sounded like a thousand prohibitions imposed by the Hogwarts caretaker, Mr Filch, who sounded a right grouch to my ears, and then finally wished us a good night and had bid us sing the Hogwarts Song. James and I had gotten right into it, singing at the top of our voices. It had been a really good evening and all four of us had fallen right into bed, exhausted.

Glancing at the others, I saw that all three of them were still fast asleep. Soft snores were coming from the direction of Peter's bed, the one closest to the door.

On the bed closest to mine, Remus' head was barely visible beneath the blanked, both he and James had not even made the effort to pull their drapes closed last night. James, sprawled on his back, was breathing deeply, a peaceful expression on his face.

At first, I decided to be considerate and let them sleep but after a few minutes of tossing and turning, I decided to forgo kindness and just wake them up.

Scrambling out of bed, I jumped onto the floor as loud as I could, scowling when none of the others even moved. Well, then… I would have to resort to more drastic measures.

An evil little grin spread across my face as I sneaked towards Remus' bed, which was closest to mine. I might have felt bad for what I was about to do when I looked down on Remus' peaceful facial expression, as he was sleeping with his mouth just slightly open, clutching a worn teddy bear in his arms. But this feeling did not last for long and I launched myself at him with a shout.

He shot straight up, screaming bloody murder until his eyes finally focused on my grinning face.

"What… what… You IDIOT!" Remus pushed my shoulder with all his might. "Get off me, you lunatic!"

Still wearing a proud grin, I rolled of off him and sat up again, glancing over at James, who had been woken by the ruckus we had made. Not much of a surprise since both of us had been yelling at the top of our voices.

"What on earth?" His voice was still sleepy and he obviously was unsure whether to be mad or amused.

"Wakey, wakey, sleepyheads." I gave both him and Remus a bright happy grin.

"And a very good morning to you, too, James."

"Good morning? GOOD morning?" Remus pushed up onto his elbows, glaring at me. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, you nutter!"

"Now, now, there's no need to exaggerate." This earned me another dark look by Remus and a chuckle from James. Clambering off Remus' bed, I cast a look at Peter and came to an abrupt halt.

"You've got to be joking! He didn't seriously sleep through all of this?"

We all stared incredulously at Peter who did not seem to have budged an inch and was still snoring peacefully.

"You know what, I really envy him right now", grumbled Remus, flopping back down and pulling the covers over his head again.

"No, no, no! Don't go back to sleep!"" I lunched myself at him again, shaking him. "C'mon, Remus! Get up!"

"Get off me! And just why would I do that, it can't even be seven am yet!"

"It's half past six, to be exact. God, Sirius, what the hell is wrong with you?" As I turned to grin at James, a pillow smacked me right in the face.

"Hey, that was completely unwarranted!" Instead of answering, James grabbed his remaining pillow and mirrored Remus.

"Oh, c'mon guys, you can't get back to sleep now." My voice had turned into a whine.

A grunt came from James' direction and a grumpy "Watch me" was the only answer I got from Remus.

Squaring my shoulders with determination, I gave both of their forms a grimace.

"Suit yourself. I, for one, won't go back to sleep!" With an evil grin, I made my way over to our bathroom, slamming the door behind me.

As I got the shower running, I started to sing as loudly and falsely as I could while rejoicing inwardly at what I pictured my friends' reactions to be.

After a few minutes, a loud knock and "Oi!" from the door was to be heard. "Oi, lunatic! We're up! You can stop now!" Getting out of the shower and swinging the door open with a grin, I stared into James' disgruntled face, noting immediately that his lips were twitching.

"Is that what we have to expect every single morning now?"

I shrugged innocently. "Maybe. Didn't you like my singing?" I gave him and Remus, who had just emerged from behind the drapes on his bed, a mischievous smile.

"You call that singing? Sounded more like an animal in pain to me."

"Very funny." I picked up the pillow James had thrown at me earlier and chucked it at Remus, who caught it easily, still scowling.

"Don't tell me Peter is still asleep?" I gave Peter's sleeping form a disbelieving look. Remus shrugged, turning to stare at him as well.

"Incredible, but yes. Believe it or not- the guy didn't even stir."

"Well, at least we know he's still alive", I commented dryly as Peter uttered another snore.

Turning around to face Remus, about to propose some measure in order to wake Peter about, the pillow smacked me right in the face, followed by hands grabbing me and giving me a push, making me fall back down onto my bed. Startled, I shook off the pillow, only to have it snatched away and see Remus' grinning face above me.

"That was for the singing and that…" he pummelled my face with the pillow "was for waking me up! And be warned, I'm usually a pretty early riser, so prepare for my revenge one of these day."

I couldn't help bursting into laughter. "Wow, Remus! I didn't think you had it in you. You have an evil side to you, don't you?" For whatever reason, his face seemed to darken at that for a moment. A normal person probably wouldn't have noticed, but I did. I had grown up with a mad, unpredictable family and had learned to notice details at an early age. So, even though the expression had lasted for only a second before the easy smile appeared again, I still had registered it, filing it away for later.

He nodded earnestly at me, the smile firmly back in place. "I sure have. So make sure you remember that." I scrutinized his retreating form thoughtfully. What had that just been? Shaking my head, convinced I was becoming paranoid, I targeted my new victim: Peter.

Sneaking up to him, I decided to go with the gentle approach first. Bending over him, so my face was just barely above his own, I said softly "Peter, wakey wakey" in a singsong voice. No reaction. "Peter!" This time my voice was distinctly louder. Still no reaction, except a chuckle from Remus' direction. All right, time to get out the big guns.

"PETER! WAKEY WAKEY!" I accompanied my shout by shaking him with all my might. This finally worked. Peter shot straight up with a loud squeal, his head smashing right into my chin, making both us howl in pain while Remus burst into laughter behind us.

"What did I miss?" James had chosen that precise moment to come back out of the bathroom and was now taking in Remus, lying on his bed and laughing into his pillow; and the two of us on Peter's bed, wearing identical scowls, rubbing our respective injuries.

Understanding dawned on James' face and he started to chuckle as well.

"Well, well, well, at least with Sirius sharing our dormitory, we can be sure of one thing: there will never be a dull moment."

A little while and quite a few detours later – since none of us had been able to recall the way back down- we finally reached the Great Hall and settled down at the Gryffindor table for breakfast. We were among the first ones there; there were only a couple of Ravenclaws, a few Slytherins and the teachers. Nevertheless, as soon as we sat down, food appeared on the plates in front of us and we started munching contentedly, as the Great Hall gradually started to fill with the other students.

"Good morning, you're up early." At the sound of Professor McGonagall's brisk voice, we looked up to find her standing behind us and looking down on us with her usual stern expression.

"Good morning to you to, Professor." Her lips pulled into a smile at Remus' words and she gave him a nod, before her features resumed her usual look.

"A little bird told me that it appears I have had the fortune of all four of the people responsible for the incident at the lake yesterday getting sorted into my house."

I gave her my best charming grin "Does that little bird go by the name of Hagrid by any chance?"

She nodded. "It does. So, may I take that as a yes?" James shrugged.

"You didn't exactly ask us a question, did you, Professor?" Her eyes narrowed.

"I'm taking that as a yes. Apparently not only a troublemaker, but a smartarse as well, are we, Mr Potter?" James just grinned at her.

"Why, why, Professor…" I raised my hand to my mouth and widened my eyes in mock-horror. "Did you just swear? And in front of first years, no less?" Shaking her head and aiming a glare my way, she handed each of us a sheet of paper.

"The First Years' timetables. And do try to stay out of trouble from now on, remember what I told you about the House Points. We haven't won the House Cup for years, it would be nice to hold it for a change. So try not to lose points idly, understood?" She gave each of us a stern look and then continued to the first year Gryffindor girls, who had come down as well by now.

"Oh, look at that. Our first period is Transfiguration, guess we'll be seeing McGonagall again later." James tossed his timetable beside his plate and continued eating. I for one took a bit longer, scanning the timetable with interest. Yes, Transfiguration was first. We seemed to have a total of five subjects: Transfiguration, Charms, Potions, Astronomy and Herbology. Apart from Transfiguration, we had Charms and Potions as well, today.

Suddenly, the sound of wings made all of us look up and at the sight of a multitude of birds flying in through the windows and delivering letters all over the hall, I could feel my stomach giving an unpleasant lurch. "Oh, look, mail's here." James' voice was filled with delight, whereas I couldn't help cringing slightly. Sure enough, my eyes locked on Zeus, the family owl, heading in my direction with a bright red envelope in his beak, which he dropped in front of me, not even stopping in his flight.

James' gasp made Remus and Peter give him a questioning look. "A howler?!" James stared at me in question, a look of apprehension on his face. "Why did you get a howler?"

"I expect you'll know in a few seconds", I answered grimly, focusing on the bowl of cereal in front of me.

"What's a howler?" Remus looked from James to me, a look of utter confusion on his face.

"Sirius! Run for it! Or everyone will hear it!" James gave me a push but I simply shook my head.

"I don't care. Let them hear it." With that I grabbed the letter and tore it open carelessly, tossing it onto the table as an ear-splitting shriek filled the whole Great Hall, making people look around curiously to see who had got the howler.

"SIRIUS ORION BLACK! I COULD'T BELIEVE MY EYES WHEN NARCISSA'S LETTER ARRIVED LAST NIGHT! GRYFFINDOR? GRYFFINDOR? THIS HAS TO BE A VERY BAD JOKE, OUR SON COULD NOT POSSIBLY GET SORTED INTO BLOODY GRYFFINDOR! HOW COULD YOU LET HIS HAPPEN? WHAT DID YOU DO, YOU DISGRACE OF THE NAME OF BACK! YOU'VE TAINTED ALL OF US, PUTTING SHAME UPON THE NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK! THE SHAME, THE SHAME! GRYFFINDOR! FATHER AND I ARE ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED! THE BLACK FAMILY HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN SLYTHERIN. YOU WILL GO SEE PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE IMMEDIATELY, TELLING HIM THAT A MISTAKE HAS BEEN MADE AND THAT YOU BELONG IN SLYTHERIN. IMMEDIATELY, SIRIUS! SHAME ON YOU! YOU ARE A BLACK. HOW DARE YOU INSULT YOUR NOBLE BLOOD BY ASSOCIATING WITH THIS FILTH THAT IS GRYFFINDOR! BLOOD TRAITORS, HALFBLOODS AND MUDBLOODS. THE VERMIN OF THE WIZARDING WORLD. AND AMONGST THEM OUR SON! THE SHAME OF IT! YOU'D BETTER SET THIS RIGHT,SIRIUS OR ELSE!"

With these last words, the howler fluttered into my face, erupted into flames and dissolved into ashes within seconds.

During the whole incident, I had kept eating, peacefully shoving spoonful after spoonful of my cereal into my mouth, now and then casting a bored look at the screaming envelope, brushing the soot off the table disdainfully after it had finally finished. Glancing up, I noticed that pretty much every single eye in the Great Hall was fixed upon me, some faces with a look of pity, anger or horror on them, but mostly curiosity or admiration. I turned back around, taking in the apprehensive faces of my mates.

Remus was once again the first one to say something. "I take it that was your mum?"

"The one and only." I gave him a lopsided grin while taking a swig of pumpkin juice.

"Charming." With a bitter laugh, I continued eating like nothing had happened, feeling the burning stares of the rest of the students on me.

"Blood traitors, Halfbloods and Mudbloods, are? The vermin of the wizarding world?" James' voice had an odd ring to it and as I looked up to meet his eyes, I could see him glaring daggers at the soot lying on the table.

"Oh, c'mon James. It's not like you don't know what the Black family stands for and you a member of one of the oldest pureblood wizarding families." James' eyes flashed up to meet mine with a steely gaze.

"Yes, I'm very well aware of that. But I will have you know that my family, despite being pureblood, is considered one of those Blood Traitors, because we do not hold with your views."

My eyebrows nearly hit my hairline and I threw down my spoon, spattering milk in all directions.

"Our views? OUR? You've got to be joking! Do you really think I agree with any of that?" At that, I looked around and registered the looks the rest of the Gryffindor table gave me, suspicion clearly etched on most of their faces.

"Well, do you?" James met my gaze without wavering, still steely-eyed. For a moment, I was struck speechless, not believing my ears. How could he think that? We might know each other only since yesterday, but he should have realized by now that I did not think in the terms the rest of my wretched family did.

"Wow. Thank you. And here I was thinking we were actually on a good way to become friends." My voice laced with bitterness, I tore my eyes away from his, stood up and turned to face the rest of the table. "You all think that, do you? That I share the same views as my lovely mother and the rest of my family? That I consider you vermin? Well, then why in the world would the hat have put me in Gryffindor-?"

"Sirius-" Remus had reached across the table, tugging on my arm to make me sit back down again, trying to catch my eyes. I, however, simply shook him off and continued to stare everyone down.

"For the record, I do not think any of that. I never have. I don't care if someone is Muggle-born or pureblood because what the bloody hell does it matter? Wizard is wizard. And as long as I get along with you, you are golden. And if not… well, then I certainly won't be nice to you just because you are a "pureblood". So, stop judging me because of my family and their views, thank you very much."

With that, I sat back down, fuming and not looking at anyone or anything.

"Sirius." When I refused to look up, Remus huffed an exasperated sigh and a second later, a spoon hit me right in the face.

"What the…" Glaring, my eyes met his, which did not look apologetic at all.

"For the record, I did not believe for a second that you were like your family. And neither did James. Not really. Because that would make him an idiot. Right, James?" His eyes shifted towards James and shot him a glare, which clearly warned him not to say anything wrong.

Huffing a sigh, James put down his spoon as well and turned to face me.

"He's right. I didn't believe it, not really. I mean, I've seen you with your cousins and all and I saw how happy you were to be sorted into Gryffindor…"

"Oh, yeah? Save it, you were pretty explicit just a minute ago." I didn't even deign to look at him, looking at Peter instead whose eyes flashed from me to James and back to me at a speed that was kind of alarming.

"So, James has obviously already made up his mind about me. What about you, Peter? Do you think I'm some pureblood maniac who will kill all of you in your sleep one night? Because if so, say so straight away, then I know where I'm at and do not waste any time on you." My voice was laced with bitterness and I could feel the pain in my chest increasing by the minute.

Peter stared at me in shock, obviously at a loss for words, then looking at James and Remus for help.

Snorting, I finished the last bit of my cereal and pumpkin juice and then got up, grabbed my timetable and marched towards the double doors at the other end of the Great Hall. The bad thing about the Gryffindor Table- I had to pass the whole of the Great Hall to get back to the staircase leading to Gryffindor Tower and the classrooms. Pretty much everyone's attention was on me and even though the burning in my chest was spreading, I refused to show any signs of weakness, walking with my back straight and my head held high, meeting people's eyes boldly, staring them down before they looked away. Let them stare! Just let them! Whatever I might be, I was not weak. I had been born a fighter. What had the hat said… "You are a rebel at heart." Oh, yeah, that I was. Let them look their fill. I would certainly not cower away, if there was one thing, one trait I shared with the rest of my family, it was my pride and my determination. It would take a lot more to make me forsake those two.

Hearing the door slam behind me with a booming sound, I registered the silence I had left behind with satisfaction and was already halfway up the staircase towards Gryffindor Tower when I realized that it was the last place I wanted to be right now. Turning around, I made my way towards the Entrance Hall, walking past the huge doors and outside, stopping for a moment to breathe in the morning air and then simply walked without even really paying attention to my surroundings, my mind still on the events of the morning, my mother's voice echoing in my head.

"WHAT DID YOU DO, YOU DISGRACE OF THE NAME OF BACK! YOU'VE TAINTED ALL OF US, PUTTING SHAME UPON THE NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK! THE SHAME, THE SHAME! GRYFFINDOR! FATHER AND I ARE ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED!" Well, when were they not disgusted with me?

"THE BLACK FAMILY HAS ALWAYS BEEN IN SLYTHERIN". Oh yeah, no kidding?

"YOU WILL GO SEE PROFESSOR DUMBLEDORE IMMEDIATELY, TELLING HIM THAT A MISTAKE HAS BEEN MADE AND THAT YOU BELONG IN SLYTHERIN" Over my dead body!

"YOU ARE A BLACK. HOW DARE YOU INSULT YOUR NOBLE BLOOD BY ASSOCIATING WITH THIS FILTH THAT IS GRYFFINDOR! BLOOD TRAITORS, HALFBLOODS AND MUDBLOODS. THE VERMIN OF THE WIZARDING WORLD". And there it was again: You are a Black! They had been throwing that statement in my face for as I long as I could think. You are Black, so behave like one. You are Black, so think like one. You are Black, so don't go tainting the reputation of the rest of the family. YOU ARE A BLACK, make sure you always remember that.

Well, I might be a Black but I was also Sirius. Jumping to my feet, I clenched my fists and bellowed at the lake. "That's right, I might be a Black but I'm also SIRIUS! Did you hear that, I'm Sirius? I'm not just a last name, I'm not just a Black, I AM SIRUS!" With that, I fell back down to my feet and cradled my head in my hands, suddenly fighting the urge to cry.

Angry, I kicked at the ground before finally dropping down to the ground, staring at the lake without really seeing anything at all.

"Done shouting?" Whipping around, my eyes found Remus coming towards me.

Without replying, I settled my chin on my knees again, staring out over the length of the lake, feeling a strange sort of comfort at the sight of the water, glittering in the weak morning sun.

Remus sat down next to me, not saying anything but instead looking out over the sea himself.

I had no idea how long we sat there in silence, both of us just watching the tiny ripples that spread over the lake every now and then. The only sounds around us were the twittering of the birds and the odd splashing sound emanating from the water.

"You know, Andromeda told me a Giant Squid lives in those waters." My voice still sounded a bit hoarse but right now, I did not care.

"Fancy that. Wonder what a Giant Squid looks like." Remus looked over at me.

"Feel any better?" I shrugged, not meeting his eyes.

"How did you where to find me?"

"Lucky guess. Well, that and I saw the way you were looking at the lake yesterday. Thought I'd check." I nodded, not saying anything in reply, still not really trusting my voice. Nevertheless, I realized that I was glad he had come after me. His presence was comforting somehow, especially since he did not force me to talk, content to simply sit with me in silence.

"I was so happy to be in Gryffindor." My voice was barely audible.

"I know. Don't let what happened this morning spoil it. Easy for me to say, I know. But you're strong, Sirius. You proved that just a few minutes ago right there in the Great Hall." I tore out a patch of grass and started tear it apart piece for piece.

"They don't even know me. But that does not hinder them from judging me. They have already made up their mind about me, haven't they? Just because I'm a Black." The last three words came out in a sneer.

"You know, I'm not so sure about that." Remus' voice sounded thoughtful and for the first time I sneaked a look at him from the corner of my eye.

"What do you mean?"

"It took real courage to do what you did back there. Most other people would have run as soon as they had got their fingers on the Howler instead of suffering through the shame of having to listen to it in front of the entire school. And the way you reacted, you just sat through it cool as stone, going so far as to continue eating like you didn't care one whit about it. I saw other peoples' faces and I know what I felt right then… admiration! Right then, that moment I was so impressed with you. And so were lots of other people. And what you did then, even more impressive. You didn't cower away when James confronted you, you fought back. And then you stood up to the entire hall full of students, not batting an eyelash and then walking out of there with your head held high when most people would have fled with their tail between their legs."

I shrugged. "I'm not one for running, usually. I like to fight my battles right away. Hiding does not make them go away after all. "

"And that takes courage to do that." Remus smiled at me.

"Whatever you are, Sirius Black, you certainly are no coward. And just so you know, I heard what you said… or rather, shouted, a few minutes ago." Biting my lip, I stared at the lake once more.

"Did you now?"

"Yes, I did. And I want you to know that I understand. I understand what it feels like to be judged, to have some label put on you. I understand how terrible, how helpless that makes you feel. And just so you know… I don't care about your last name. I don't care about your family and their screwed up ideas. You're Sirius, this weird, hilarious lunatic I met on the train yesterday and who I happen to share a dormitory with. Someone I would very much like to be friends with because from all I've seen so far, he will make a great friend."

I looked him in the eyes for the first time and smiled sadly.

"I wouldn't know. I've never had a friend before. Well, except for Andromeda but since she is my cousin that doesn't really count."

"Neither have I." I raised my eyebrows in surprise.

"What?" A sad smile appeared on Remus' face.

"I've never had a friend, either. At least… until now, I think?" He gave me a hesitant look at which my lips irrepressibly curved into the beginnings of a smile.

"Yeah, until now."

We succumbed to silence again, watching an eagle fly his circles high above our heads.

"You know what hurt the most?" I kept my eyes on the eagle, admiring its gracefulness.

"James' reaction?" Nodding, I brushed a hand through my hair.

"Yep. You know, after last night I really thought we were friends."

"We are. I mean, if you still want to." Both Remus and I whipped around, startled at the voice behind us and found James and Peter standing a few feet away from us. James looked really uncomfortable, almost shy as he stood there, wringing his hands nervously.

I remained silent, simply raising an eyebrow. James sighed and his eyes moved up to meet mine.

"I'm sorry, Sirius. I really am. Remus set me straight right after you left the hall and he was absolutely right. You were absolutely right. Even ignoring the fact that I should have known better anyway, I should never have judged you for something your mother did. So, I'm sorry. Do you accept my apology?"

I didn't answer, simply staring into his eyes which were shining with sincerity and remorse.

" And just so you know, I don't apologize very often, so I'm really not good at this. But I'd be very happy if you wouldn't be mad at me anymore for being an arse and if you'd be my friend again."

My eyes shifted to Remus, who smiled at me in encouragement and finally, I huffed a sigh and gave James a smile.

"Consider it forgiven and forgotten. But once and for all: I am not like them!"

James nodded. "We know that. I know that."

I patted the spot next to me on the grass. "Then why don't you two get over here and help us spot the Giant Squid." James' shoulders sagged in relief and clapped his hand on my shoulder as he flopped down onto the grass next to me.

"That was quite some show you gave everyone back there. Everyone's talking about it. And don't get me wrong, most of the people are really impressed with you, saying how you're certainly brave enough to be a Gryffindor. Guess you already managed to establish your reputation as the tough guy, huh?" His allusion to the comment I had made on the train made me grin.

"Good, then they'll know not to mess with me. I've had plenty of practice, I've been fighting my mad cow of a mother since I was able to think. Should give me a fair advantage, don't you think?"

"Huh. Your mother… she's quite something, isn't she?" I snorted at that.

"She's a mad bitch! I'm guessing that I have not yet heard the end of this. She's never been much of a fan of mine but I would bet everything I own that she positively hates me now."

"Just for being sorted into Gryffindor?" Peter's voice sounded both incredulous and curious. I gave him a bitter look.

"Didn't you listen? I've tainted the whole reputation of the noble House of Black." Once again, my voice was dripping with sarcasm. Then I shrugged. "Well, whatever. Not much she can do about it, right? And besides, as the Sorting Hat told me last night, I'm a rebel at heart. So she'll just have to deal with it."

The other three nodded vigorously, each giving me encouraging smiles. Then suddenly Remus jumped up as if his pants were on fire. Surprise we turned to look up at him and the sudden look of panic on his face, as he seemed to search the grounds for something in a panic.

"You all right there, Remus?"

"No, absolutely not. We've lost track of time. We have now exactly five minutes to get to our first lesson!" That was enough to get all of us on our feet in no time.


	4. Chapter 4 Remus's Story

Chapter 4: Just Be Remus Lupin

Remus:

I don't think I had ever been remotely as happy as yesterday. From the moment I had stumbled into Sirius and his elf at the train station to our arrival at Hogwarts, the day had been perfect.

I would never be able to describe the moment I had set eyes on Hogwarts for the first time. For years, I had thought I'd never be able to come here because of my condition. For years, Hogwarts had been nothing but an empty dream. And then… Dumbledore happened.

 _8 months ago:_

 _I was sitting in the kitchen of our little house in the middle of nowhere, watching my mother sing along to some Muggle radio channel as she was preparing dinner while doing the crossword puzzle of some random Muggle newspaper, when a sudden knock on the door startled both of us._

 _Mum stopped singing immediately and turned the volume on the radio down._

" _Who can that be? There is no way Daddy will be home from work, yet." I could hear the anxiety in her voice and laid down my pencil at once. She bit down onto her lip and then gave me a smile._

" _I'll go have a look. Watch the food for me, will you, Remus sweetheart?" When I nodded, she ruffled my hair affectionately and made her way out of the kitchen. I could feel the pace of my heart picking up. Yes, who could that possibly be? We never got visitors, one of the reasons we lived in the middle of nowhere for. To avoid contact with other people._

 _True to my word, I went over to the stove and stirred the vegetables when I heard my mother's voice._

" _I'm just preparing the food, my husband should be home in about an hour. Would you like to stay for dinner?"_

 _A deep, male voice answered her at once. "That would be lovely, yes. Thank you, Mrs. Lupin."_

 _I turned around, curious to see whom she was talking to, as my mother came back into the kitchen with a very odd-looking man behind her. His hair was long and white, just like his enormous beard, there were a couple of square glasses perched on top of his nose and he was clad in long swishy dark blue robes._

" _Ah, this must be Remus." The man gave me a warm smile, his bright blue eyes twinkling cheerfully at me as he came forward and clasped my hand in his own._

" _It's very nice to finally meet you. I am Albus Dumbledore." My eyes widened in recognition of the name._

" _Albus Dumbledore? The Albus Dumbledore? The headmaster at Hogwarts?"_

 _He chuckled gently. "Yes, Yes, I suppose I am."_

" _Won't you sit down, Sir?" Mum gestured at the table with a smile as she stepped towards me and took control of the stove again._

" _Thank you. Remus, won't you sit with me?" I gave my mother a curious look, a bit unsure what to think of all of this and she gave me an encouraging smile and a nod in return._

 _Sitting down next to the man, I noticed that he was eyeing my crossword puzzle with great interest. " Good Lord, I used to love these things. You've gotten very far already." I smiled at his interest and pulled it towards me once again, a little crease appearing on my forehead as I stared down at the few blank spaces left. "Yes, but I'm stuck now."_

" _Let me see, maybe I can help you." Dumbledore moved to sit right beside me and bent his head over the crossword puzzle as well. Soon enough, the two of us were completely immersed in the riddle, discussing the various questions animatedly, losing track of time completely. I had not even noticed the second knock on the door quite some time later until my father's hand clamped down on my shoulder._

" _Hello Remus, my dear." He smiled down at me for a moment before his eyes shifted to the man sitting next to me. "Headmaster." There was both respect as well as a questioning tone in my father's voice as he gave Dumbledore a respectful nod._

" _Why so formal, my dear boy? Good Lord, you have grown up. Quite a change from the little boy I remember." Dumbledore got to his feet and clasped my father's hand affectionately, beaming at him. "We haven't seen each other in quite some time. Since you left Hogwarts, as a matter of fact."_

 _My dad nodded. "Yes, it's been quite some time, indeed. Good to see you, Sir! What brings you here?"_

" _Now, now, I'm sure that can wait until after we have finished dinner, can't it?" My mother had come up behind us, her hands on her hips yet still wearing her trademark smile._

" _Remus, be a dear and help me set the table, will you?" I jumped up obediently, clearing away the newspaper and went to get the dishes, my mind whirring excitedly. What on earth could Dumbledore be doing here? Was it possible that he had find out about… Had he come to take me away? My throat immediately closed in and I could feel my hands start to shake._

 _As I came back into the kitchen and started to set the table, I could see Dumbledore's eyes jumping to my shaking hands and then back up to my anxious face. Chuckling, he shook his head._

" _Don't worry, Remus. You have nothing to fear from me. I promise." This made me feel a little better but I was not yet sure whether to believe it or not._

 _Dinner was a rather silent affair, with Dumbledore, Mum or Dad occasionally breaking the silence whereas I focused on the stir fry my mother had cooked, my mind still pondering a thousand thoughts at once._

 _As everyone had finally finished and I had helped my mother clear away the plates and we had all settled back around the table, all eyes on Dumbledore, he finally clasped his hands and looked at each of us in turn, his eyes finally coming to rest on me._

" _Am I correct that you'll be turning eleven this coming March, Remus?" At my nod, he smiled brightly._

" _Then I am very glad to announce you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as of September 1 of this year, at the start of the new school year." Dumbstruck, I simply stared at him. A brief jolt of excitement was immediately replaced by disappointment and gloominess._

 _Dumbledore must have noticed as he raised one big bushy white eyebrow in question._

" _What's wrong, Remus? Do you not want to attend Hogwarts?"_

" _I do, very very much… but…" My voice trailed off and my eyes went to my parents for help. Both of them wore identical masks of dejection and helplessness. My father finally cleared his throat and looked at Dumbledore._

" _We are very honoured by your offer, Sir, but I am afraid we must decline. I am very sorry that you have made all this way here for nothing, even though I am a bit surprised you did not simply send a letter."_

 _Dumbledore leaned back in his chair and smiled slightly. "Because I knew that his would be your answer, Lyall. But why? Remus wants to go to Hogwarts, he just said so."_

 _My parents exchanged helpless looks, obviously at a loss what to say._

 _Dumbledore gave a close look. "My boy, where did you get those injuries? They look quite painful?" Seeing him glance at the long flaming red scratches on my arm, I hastily pulled my sleeve back into place and over my hand, letting my hair fall into my face._

" _A wild dog. There are quite a few of them in these woods. Remus was out playing and one of them attacked him. Luckily, I was close by and could scare the dog off before he could hurt him even worse?" My father had hastily jumped to my rescue to provide a response._

 _Dumbledore raised his eyebrow again, his eyes twinkling mischievously, his lips pulling up slightly._

" _A wild dog?" Something in the tone of his voice and the look in his eyes told me he didn't believe this story for a second. The nervous look my parents exchanged confirmed my suspicions._

" _Yes, dreadful beasts, they are. But I guess we can be glad Remus only got off with only a few scratches."_

" _Are you quite sure that these scratches were caused by a dog?"_

 _My dad huffed a nervous laugh. "Yes, of course. What else would have caused it?"_

" _A wolf, maybe?" My eyes shot up to meet Dumbledore's and an ice cold feeling was spreading through my body. He knows. He knows!_

" _A wolf? Non-sense. Why would you say that?" My dad huffed, still hoping to save the situation._

 _Dumbledore seemed to notice my panic as he stretched out his hand and placed it gently upon my arm, giving me a warm smile. "I told you before, Remus. You have nothing to fear from me. Nothing, whatsoever. And Lyall, you can stop telling me stories now, you never were a good liar, bless you. I am very well aware of the fact that Remus is a werewolf, so no need to lie to me."_

 _All three of us sat frozen, simply staring at the man in front of us._

" _How?" My father's voice was hoarse. "We did everything we could to cover our tracks. No one knows. No one except for the three of us."_

" _And Fenrir Greyback, I suppose? It was Greyback who bit your boy, wasn't it?" Dumbledore gave my arm an encouraging squeeze. I was still frozen, my gaze slowly travelling down to his hand resting casually on my arm, then back up to his eyes with a mounting feeling of incredulity._

" _Yes. It was Greyback. But how…" My father's voice trailed off at Dumbledore's chuckle._

" _Ah, now, Lyall. You ought to know by now that I have my ways of hearing and seeing things other people aren't aware of. How else would I have found you here? You have done a very fine job of covering your tracks, I must admit. You've been posing as a Muggle all those years, am I correct."_

 _My father nodded, his face still stark white and strained. My mother hardly looked any better. Giving me a concerned look, she reached out her hand and wrapped her arm securely around my shoulders, tears sparkling in her eyes._

" _You can't mean to say that you are aware of his condition and are nevertheless offering him a place at your school." Her voice was trembling, but her arm around me was reassuringly strong._

" _I do, Hope. That is exactly what I am trying to tell you."_

" _Mama." Both my mother's and father's eyes jumped to me. Still awestruck I nodded towards Dumbledore's hand, which was still resting on my arm, feeling tears burn my eyes._

" _What is it, Remus?" Dumbledore's voice was gentle as he looked at me once again._

" _You're touching my arm." This time both of his eyebrows shot up._

" _Indeed, I am. Do you mind?"_

" _You are aware of the fact that I am a monster and you still choose to touch me?" My voice was barely audible when I said this so I wouldn't have been surprised if he hadn't caught the words. But he obviously had as his the look in his eyes softened even more and he gave my arm a firm squeeze._

" _You are not a monster." I couldn't stop the tears escaping my eyes now and I hastily looked down to hide them running free._

" _I am." My voice was barely a whisper and sounded broken even to my ears. A stifled sob came from my mother and I could see that my father was fighting tears as well._

" _Remus, look at me." When I didn't react, I could feel someone grasping my chin, very gently and pushing it up so I had to look at Dumbledore. His smile was still in place but the twinkling in his eyes had been replaced by a look of utter sincerity._

" _You are not a monster, Remus. Yes, you might turn into a werewolf once a month but that does not make you a monster."_

" _It does! I am a danger to everyone within miles! I am a monstrosity." Dumbledore shook his head very firmly and kept his eyes locked on mine._

" _Did you every hurt anyone, Remus? Anyone but yourself?" I bit down onto my lip and shook my head._

" _No, but that was only because my parents have always taken the necessary precautions."_

" _Well, yes, of course. But the important thing is, you have never hurt anyone, Remus. And you do not intend to, do you?"_

" _Of course, I don't. I would never hurt anyone intentionally. Never!" Dumbledore smiled._

" _Then what exactly is it that hinders you from coming to Hogwarts?" I stared at him in disbelief. He had to be joking… was he mad? He could not seriously mean what he was saying._

 _Dumbledore chuckled loudly at the expression on my face. "Do not look at me like I am mad, Remus. I mean it. Believe me, the security of my students is my highest priority, so if I thought that you were a risk to it, I would not be asking you to join us. But I am. So the only question that matters right now, is whether you want to attend Hogwarts, or not? Do you want to? Answer honestly please."_

" _Well, yes of course, but…"_

" _Splendid! Welcome to Hogwarts then. I wouldn't have taken no for an answer anyone. The other students will be receiving a letter with the official invitation and list of things needed by owl shortly but as I am already here, I have brought all of that along for you, already."_

 _I stared at him with my mouth open, still in disbelief. When I cast a look at my parents, I could tell that they were feeling little different._

 _Dumbledore chuckled at our expressions. "Well, of course. As you said, Remus, the necessary precautions will have to be taken in order for you to be able to transform without posing a danger to the rest of the students and staff and of course, your condition will have to be kept absolutely confidential. We will have to careful about that, but apart from that…You should have as much of a lovely time at Hogwarts as all of the other students."_

" _You really are serious, are you?" My father's voice was still hoarse with emotion and his hand was shaking slightly as he reached across the table to clasp my mother's hand._

" _I am. And trust me, I have thought everything through, talked about it with the members of my staff and already taken first steps to ensure Remus being a werewolf will not pose any kind of problem."_

 _I couldn't believe my ears. My throat was closed up with emotion and I hastily wiped at the tears on my face, shaking all over. Hogwarts? This was too good to be true. For years, I had hidden away from the rest of the world and now I should be able to attend a school with hundreds of other students? To the school my father had attended, the school he was always telling me about? The school I had dreamed about for years and years, always aware of the fact that these were just empty dreams._

" _Here is your official invitation and the list of things you will need for your very first year at Hogwarts. The Hogwarts Express leaves at the first of September at 11 o'clock at platform 9 ¾, but I trust your father is still very much aware of all these formalities."_

 _My eyes locked on the letter in front of me, on the beautiful Hogwarts crest on it. I recognized the crest, my father had showed it to me on multiple occasions._

" _Well, Remus. What do you think?" My eyes shot up to meet Dumbledore's, which were twinkling again. For a moment I was frozen, then I felt a rush of happiness coursing through me. Hogwarts! It was true! I was really going to attend Hogwarts._

 _I jumped up so hastily that my chair crashed to the ground but right now, I did not care. With a few quick steps I had reached the other side of the table and flung myself at Dumbledore, feeling the tears threating to escape again._

 _I could feel the rumble of his laughter, as he put his arms around me and pulled me into his chest._

" _Thank you. Thank you. Thank you a million times." My voice was shaking and barely a whisper but I could tell that he had heard as he rubbed my back in answer._

" _There is nothing you need to thank me for, my boy."_

" _Yes, there is… you have no idea… Hogwarts…" I didn't make any sense right now but I sensed that I didn't need to, that Dumbledore was very aware of how the enormous gift he had just given me, all of us._

" _The only thing I would ask in return, is that you never let me catch you call yourself a monster or anything of the like again. Yes, you might turn into a werewolf once a month but that does not make you a monster. You're still Remus, this sweet little kid I had the pleasure to meet today. And this little kid wouldn't hurt a fly. So, Remus, I ask you to try not to let this part of your identity influence your time at Hogwarts or your life in general. You are Remus Lupin, son to Lyall and Hope Lupin; and soon to be a first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Try not to keep your distance from the other kids; try to make friends! It might be a little early to ask you to come to grips with what you are but at least try to not to dwell on it too much. Just be Remus Lupin."_


	5. Chapter 5 The First Day at Hogwarts

Remus:

Just be Remus Lupin. Easy enough to say.

I had been torn between excitement and fear as September came closer, and as it was finally there, I had practically been frozen with fear. I had never really had any contact with other people my age and had no idea how to even talk to them. And whatever I had promised Dumbledore, I could not simply forget about the fact that I was a werewolf. How could I?

But after Sirius had crashed into me on the platform, I had had very little time to dwell on it."They don't even know me. But that does not hinder them from judging me. They have already made up their mind about me, haven't they? Just because I'm a Black". God, how much I had felt for Sirius when he had uttered that sentence. I knew so well what he was talking about. Oh, Sirius, if only you knew…

We hastily made our way up the stairs, looking for the Transfiguration classroom.

"Great, just great! We have seriously managed to be late for our first ever lesson here at Hogwarts!" I kept shaking my head, glancing around helplessly with absolutely no clue where to go. Perfect… just perfect. I had been set on making a good impression, on proving that Dumbledore had been right to let me come to Hogwarts. Yes, it would definitely make a very good first impression to arrive late at the very first class of my Hogwarts career. A class held by our Head of House, no less.

"I'm so sorry, guys." Sirius shot me an apologetic look.

"Not your fault. If it's anyone's fault, it's mine." James chimed up.

"It's all of our fault and can we please all put less effort into talking and more into finding the classroom, please?"

"Oh, c'mon Remus, there are far worse things than being late to class."

My answer was to glare at James as fiercely as I could before running my hands through my hair nervously. Just great.

"Oi! You!" My head whipped around at the sound of Sirius' shout and I curiously followed his gaze to the ghost that had halted a few feet away, looking at us with interest … and a little bit of indignation at being addressed in that fashion.

"Are you talking to me?" His voice sounded friendly enough, even though there was a little bit of a reprimand in it.

"Yes. We are late and can't find our classroom. We have Transfiguration with Professor McGonagall right now. You would not happen to know where that is?" Sirius gave the ghost his best puppy dog look.

The ghost floated towards us with a dignified expression. "Would I happen to know where that is… Well, of course I do. I've been roaming these halls for centuries, haven't I? Follow me, gentlemen. And you'd better hurry. Professor McGonagall does not appreciate tardiness." We exchanged relieved glances as we followed him hastily.

Thanks to our guide it did not take us long to finally reach the classroom and I gave the ghost a grateful smile. "Thank you so much, sir!" The ghost gave me a genuine smile and an encouraging nod.

"Yes, thank you. See you later some time." Sirius threw a smile the ghost's way, rapped on the door with his knuckles and jerked the door open without even waiting for a reply.

All of the students already seated turned around to watch us come in, as did Professor McGonagall who was standing at the front, with a very stern expression on her face. Oh dear.

"Sorry, we got lost." Sirius cracked up his most charming smile again, whose charms were obviously lost on McGonagall as her eyebrows nearly hit her hairline.

"I do not tolerate tardiness. Make sure you remember that! This once, I will overlook it, though, as long as it does not happen again. Now, take your seats please."

Flopping down onto a chair next to James, I took a deep breath and then took out my book.

"As I was saying before I was interrupted by Mr Black, Mr Potter, Mr Lupin and Mr Pettigrew", she gave us a dark look "today, we will be turning matches into needles. Do not feel disappointed if you should not yet be able to make any difference to it. This is your very first lesson after all and it takes most students about two, or in some cases even three, lessons to get the hang of it. So, wands out, let's see what you can do." I felt my stomach flopping nervously. What I made a fool of myself in front of everyone? I had read all about the theory and knew just fine which spell and which wand movement to use… but in practice… As my parents had done their best to uphold the pretence of being Muggles even at home, I had never had much practice with spells.

"How does she already know us by name?" Startled, I looked up at James' whisper. He gave me an incredulous look. Sirius, who shared the table right next us with Peter, and who had obviously heard James as well, leaned over and whisper shouted, "Sort of scary, isn't it? I mean, I know we are in her house after all, but we've only been here for about one night!"

"And nevertheless, you have already managed to make a name for yourself in this very short span of time, Mr Black. That is the second time you lot have interrupted my lesson today. Let's not have a third time, all right?" Sirius startled and whipped around to see Professor McGonagall towering over him with a scowl.

"Blimey, Professor! I didn't see you there."

"Obviously, Mr Black." Sirius whipped out his charming grin again, blinking up at her innocently.

"We were only marvelling at your astonishing memory. It's very impressive."

"Save yourself the trouble of trying to flatter me, Mr Black, it won't work. And just for the record, I am immune to the puppy dog eye look. Now get to work!" I couldn't help the chuckle that had escaped me at Sirius' befuddled expression, hastily lowering my head and trying to appear fully immersed in the task when Professor McGonagall glanced at our table searching for the source of the noise.

I successfully avoided her eyes as both James and I grabbed a match out of the box she held out towards us and with a sigh, I settled to the task of trying to transfigure it into a match. After a few minutes of chanting the incantation under my breath and swishing my wand through the air, I could not help feeling exasperated and anxious as I the match on my desk was still very much a match and not a needle.

Suddenly James next to me gave an excited cry and when I glanced at him, he held up the match triumphantly, admiring its smooth silver colour. Barely three seconds later, Sirius shouted out as well, holding his up next to James' with a grin, having managed to turn it silver as well.

"Nice work there, gentlemen. You're off to a good start. Good to see your heads are not only there to sprout off nonsense in order to disrupt my class." Professor McGonagall bent down slightly to take a closer look at the two matches. "Carry on, now. I'd like to see what else you can do to it."

It appeared she had awoken both James' and Sirius' ambition with these words as both of them set to the task with their faces scrunched up in concentration. Getting back to my own match, I closed my eyes for a second, taking a deep breath and then had another try, giving a quick sound of surprise when I discovered that I had actually managed to turn it a light silver as well. I could feel a wave of warmth coursing through me at the sight, my heart swelling with pride. I had done it!

James gave me a quick smile and thumbs-up before he focused on his own match again.

Time practically seemed to fly as we all worked on our first proper attempt at Transfiguration. Apart from the three of, only a handful of other students had managed to make any difference to their match at all whereas the rest (including Peter, who was looking unhappier by the minute) was still poking at the match with their wand rather helplessly.

About five minutes before the end of the lesson, a sudden triumphant scream erupted from Sirius' desk and the latter held up the needle in his hand for everyone to see with a beaming grin. Professor McGonagall stepped closer, took the needle and examined it closely. Finally, she nodded.

"Solid work there, Mr Black."

At that moment both James and I gave a gasp as our matches turned into needles as well, giving each other wide grins.

"Impressive. Very impressive. I don't think I've ever had more than two people manage this first Transfiguration in such a short span of time."

Sirius grinned brightly at the Professor and jokingly knocked against his forehead. "Not just a clothes rack, Professor!" The latter handed back my needle and cast a glance over at him.

"Do not get ahead of yourself there, Black. It might have just been beginner's luck."

"Beginner's luck?" This time, it was James, who had spoken up. "That was skill, Professor!"

Sirius nodded vigorously. "Yes, tons and tons of skill." Professor McGonagall huffed a short laugh, shaking her head at him.

"Skill to get yourself in trouble, yes. Skill at Transfiguration, well, that remains to be seen."

Gasping, Sirius clapped his hand over his heart, giving the Professor a wide-eyed look of mock outrage.

"You wound me, Professor! Way to discourage your students on their very first day here."

"Oh, yes, I am sure you are terribly dejected, Mr Black. I suppose you will be running up to your dormitory straight after this lesson to cry your eyes out cradling your teddy bear, won't you?"

McGonagall: One, Sirius: Zero. I snorted again, making Sirius give me a dirty look, yet his twitching lips betrayed him. James next to me was positively shaking with laughter as well

"I can already see that we will get along just great, Professor." Sirius winked at her, grinning broadly.

"We'll see about that, Mr Black. We'll see about that." Once again, Sirius had opened his mouth to reply but McGonagall clapped her hands, cutting him off.

"All right, that's it for today. Please make sure to reread the chapter on today's lesson and practice the wand movement. Thank you for your attention, have a good rest of the day."

The rest of our morning passed fairly uneventful, with the exception of Sirius earning quite a few looks in the corridors and when we walked into the Great Hall at lunchtime, most people, even upperclassmen glanced up to watch us walk past, probably remembering the Howler and Sirius' reaction this morning. Whereas Sirius didn't even seem to notice the attention he was getting and was still in a very good mood from his success and bickering with McGonagall in Transfiguration, Peter blushed visibly at all those heads turned our way and managed to trip twice on our way to the Gryffindor table.

We had only one more lesson this afternoon: Potions, down in the dungeons with Professor Slughorn, the Head of Slytherin. This time we decided we would not take any chances and simply wait in the Great Hall for Slughorn to leave and then simply follow him.

As it turned out, Slughorn himself did not seem to be particularly set on punctuality as he took his time finishing his lunch, laughing with Professor Dumbledore before finally making his way down to the dungeons, walking along slowly, waving at students and humming to himself.

We had tried not to make it too obvious we were following him, always lingering behind a little bit but as most of the other students already seemed to have gone to their respective classes, the hallways were practically deserted after two minutes and as Slughorn glanced over his shoulder, his eyes fastened on the four of us.

"Ah, hello! You would not by chance be in my next lesson, would you?" He gave us a wide beaming smile, waiting for us to catch up with him.

"We are. We thought we'd save us the trouble of trying to find the way to the classroom on our own and simply follow you instead." James grinned a bit sheepishly at the professor, who laughed out loud.

"Clever, clever. Have you had problems finding your other classes?" He had turned around and walked on by now.

"Yes, we actually managed to be late to our very first lesson today." Sirius chirped up.

"Oh dear. What was I, if I may ask?"

"Transfiguration." At that, Slughorn burst into a fit of huffing laughter.

"Oh boy! I bet Minerva was most amused."

"Minerva?" Sirius gave him a curious look. "Is that Professor McGonagall's first name?" At Slughorn's nod, he beamed, a notably mischievous look on his face. "Splendid, I'll be able to think up some darling nicknames for her for next lesson, let's see who has the last word then."

Professor Slughorn gave him a curious look and came to an abrupt halt, staring at Sirius as though struck by lightning.

"You're the Black boy, aren't you?" Sirius' smile was still firmly fixed onto his face but the twinkling in his eyes had disappeared.

"I'm sorry. We should have introduced ourselves, Sir. I'm James Potter, that over there are Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin and well, you've already recognized Sirius Black." Professor Slughorn's eyes were still fixed on Sirius, a look of the utmost curiosity on his face.

"I had been looking forward to welcoming another Black into my House but it appears I do not have the pleasure. A Black, who is not in Slytherin. Curious… very curious. Well, most disappointing for me but well, the Sorting Hat has made its decision. Nevertheless, I'll be most interested to see how you will be doing in my class, Mr Black. I am very fond of your relatives, especially of dear Andromeda."

Finally tearing his eyes away from Sirius, he gave the rest of us a smile. "I'm sorry, I'm afraid I didn't catch the rest of your names, too busy lamenting the loss of another brilliant young face for my own house. Would you mind repeating them?"

James grinned. "Not at all, Professor. I'm James Potter and the other two are Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew." Slughorn gave a slight start and glanced at Peter and me.

"Lupin? Who of you two is Mr Lupin?" My stomach gave a clench as I hesitantly raised my hand, feeling a bit sick. Slughorn's eyes met mine and he stared at me with a mixture of curiosity and apprehension in his eyes. My stomach clenched unpleasantly. Yes, go ahead. Stare at the werewolf. Stare at the monstrosity.

"Ah, yes." After a quick pause, he finally pulled his lips into another one of his smiles even though he still seemed a bit cautious. "Your father used to be student of mine as well quite a few years ago, I remember him well. He did not really have a knack for Potions, nevertheless, I was very fond of him. Is he well?" Not really trusting my voice, I gave a short nod and after letting his eyes rest on me for another moment, Slughorn finally turned around.

"Good gracious me, we are late! We had better get moving now. Follow me, gentlemen, the rest of the class will be waiting already."

An elbow digging into my side made me glance at Sirius, who was giving me a curious look and mouthing "What was that?". My stomach clenched again as I glanced at James and Peter, who were both looking at me as well. I shrugged and was luckily saved by Professor Slughorn himself.

"Have you already had a look into your potions books, boys? We will already start with a concoction today, but do not fret too much about it, it will be a rather easy one. Ah, there are the rest of your classmates. Oh look, how nice. Both Gryffindors and first years from my own house. I daresay this class will certainly not get boring." He laughed his wheezy laugh again, winking at us conspiratorially and waving energetically at the rest of our classmates.

"Oh, well, well, look who's here as well." There was a hint of a grin in Sirius' voice and indeed, when I gave him a look out of the corner of my eye, he was grinning like a maniac, exchanging a meaningful look with James, who wore a very similar expression on his face. Curious to see what or rather who had caught their eye, my eyes finally found the redhead, who we now knew to go by the name of Lily Evans, as she was both in our Transfiguration and Charms class as well, and next to her, her dark-haired Slytherin friend, whispering something in her ear which made her giggle.

As Slughorn led us into the classroom, James immediately followed the two of them and settled down at the table right behind theirs, joined by Peter. Sirius and I took the table on James' right hand side, Sirius still grinning evilly and gesturing for James to go ahead.

The latter, kicked the boy's chair with his foot and leaned back casually in his chair, grinning at him and the girl as they turned around, their faces instantly wearing matching scowls.

"How very nice to see the two of you again. You're Lily, right?" The girl gave him a curt nod.

"And you're Snivellus, correct?" James grinned at the boy, who seemed visibly annoyed.

"Severus! His name is Severus!" The girl was glaring daggers at James, tossing her long fiery red hair with a huff.

"Oh, he'll always be Snivellus to us." Sirius had decided to join the conversation, grinning and tilted his chair back, so it rested only on its two hind legs. My eyes widened slightly.

"Will you stop this, you're going to break your neck!" Sirius' eyes shifted towards me, his grin spreading.

"Oh, worried about me, are you, Remus? No need, I've made an art of this, I won't fall. But sweet of you to care." I snorted and rolled my eyes.

"Fine, be my guest. But if you fall on your smug face, I'll be smirking down at you, telling you I'd told you so."

"Fine with me. Because I won't fall, I am a pro at his." Sirius leaned back even more, grinning self-confidently.

"Sirius, watch out!" James' shout came too late though, as Sirius' head snapped up, the greasy-haired boy had already pointed his wand at Sirius' chair and muttered something under his breath, making both the chair and Sirius topple over and crash to the ground. As every single person in the classroom turned around to glance at Sirius, he lay sprawled on the floor, shaking his head in a dazed way, much too taken aback to think of one of his usual smart arse replies.

"Oh my God, are you all right?" I hastily jumped up and knelt down next to him, James joining me only a second later.

"Yeah, sure. What just happened?" Sirius gave his chair a very confused look before comprehension finally dawned on his face. "Did that slimy git just hex me?"

"I tried to warn you." James wore a dark look on his face and jumped to his feet again as I grabbed Sirius' hand to help him up.

"What the hell did you do that for, you git? He could have gotten seriously hurt!" The anger in James' voice was unmistakable and as I turned around, I found him glaring at Severus, his hands clenched to fists.

The other boy just shrugged, his lips twitching lightly. "I have absolutely no idea whatsoever what you are talking about." James' eyes narrowed and he was about to bark back some retort when Professor Slughorn reached the scene of the crime, his eyes shifting from person to person curiously.

"What is the matter here, gentlemen? Mr Black, are you all right?" As Sirius nodded, his own eyes giving off sparks in Severus' direction, Slughorn gave him a smile.

"Good. Maybe you will know to keep all four of your chair's legs to the floor from now on. "

"He hexed him! He hexed Sirius' chair so it would fall over!" James pointed accusingly at the boy in front of him. Slughorns' brows raised in surprise as he turned to look at the other boy.

"Mr Snape?" The boy gave him a wide-eyed look. "I didn't do anything, Professor! The boy was rocking around on his chair, it was no wonder he fell over." The girl chimed up as well. "It's the truth, Professor. Sev has been talking to me this whole time."

"Liar!" James' voice was cutting, as he glared at the both of them.

"Now, now, settle down everybody. Let's forget about this and finally begin this lesson, shall we?" Slughorn gave Sirius a pat on the shoulder and marched to the front. The Snape boy turned around to give James and Sirius a self-satisfied smirk before muttering something into his friend's ear, which made her giggle and cast a glance at us as well.

One look at my friends told me that they were seething.

"Are you sure you're ok?" Sirius gave me a curt nod, not taking his eyes off Snape's back.

"Yes, I'm fine but this git will regret this, mark my words." Sighing, I stared down onto my piece of paper, scribbling down the instructions, which had appeared on the blackboard.

"Well, you did start this by tipping their boat last night." Sirius' head whipped around and he stared at me incredulously. "You can't be serious! He started it by being an arse on the train!"

"Nevertheless, maybe you should just let it go." I didn't look at him, focusing on the notes.

"Let it go? Oh, no, my dear Remus. It is on! Nobody hexes Sirius Black and gets along with it! I will so get him!" The last words were practically a snarl.

"I'm with you, mate. That idiot more than deserves it", James whispered in our direction, making Sirius beam at him and me groan.

The rest of the lesson consisted mostly of brewing the concoction Slughorn had us do for our first lesson. Fortunately, Sirius seemed to have somewhat of a knack for potions, so that our potion had turned exactly the clear shade of lavender, Slughorn had described at the beginning of the class.

Slughorn slowly made his way through the rows of tables, taking a look at all of the potions, sniffing it, commenting on it or sometimes just making noises indicating either approval or disapproval.

James and Peter did not look remotely as happy as the two of us did, Peter was still stirring the potion with a helpless look on his face.

"What the hell did you two do to it?" Sirius raised both his eyebrows at the startling shade of green of their potion. James gave Peter a look that told him that he had better explain, making the latter blush heavily. "It's all my fault, my hand slipped when I was adding the drops of … whatsit." James sighed and looked over at us. "Instead of adding three drops, he nearly emptied the damn bottle." Sirius and I both winced in sympathy, giving Peter an encouraging smile.

"Oh boy, what happened here?" Slughorn had reached James and Peter, glancing down at their potion with a crease on his forehead. Stuttering, Peter repeated his explanation. But instead of reprimanding him, Slughorn just gave him a pitying smile.

"Not to worry, my boy. It's only your first lesson, we'll sort you out!"

With that, he stepped over to our table, glancing down into our cauldron, his eyebrows rising in appreciation. "Well now, that looks… perfect. Good job, Mr Black and Mr Lupin. Very well done, indeed." He gave both of us a bright smile and nodded encouragingly, making Sirius beam at me and raise his hand for a high five. Chuckling I replied in kind.

"Well, it appears we have quite a few with a knack for potions here. Another perfect sample!" Slughorn beamed at Snape and Lily, who grinned at each other proudly. Sirius and James exchanged annoyed looks and mimed gagging.

Sirius and I were still in high spirits as we went to dinner tonight while Peter kept apologizing to James for messing up the potion even though the latter kept insisting that it was it all right and that he should just drop it.

"Sounds like Peter there could do with a little more self-esteem, doesn't it?", Sirius whispered to me as we entered the Great Hall behind the two others.

"Well, maybe you could share yours with him. Your ego's big enough for two, anyway." Chuckling, I ditched his attempt to elbow me in the ribs and sat down on the table, laughing as Sirius started to heap tons of every single dish on the table onto his plate while James was shaking his head in disbelief.

"Hey, aren't you the ghost who helped us find our way to class today?" Raising my head up from my plate, I glanced over at Sirius and saw the ghost with the ruff, who had just sat down next to him. He turned to look at us and then gave us a smile. "Yes, indeed. Did you find all your other classes all right?"

I nodded and smiled at him gratefully. "Yes, we did. Thank you very much for saving us this morning."

"Did you get into much trouble with Professor McGonagall?" the ghost asked sympathetically.

"Not really no. I actually think she kind of likes us, good ol' Minerva does." Sirius grinned at both my and the ghost's start.

"Sirius!" The ghost nodded avidly at my indignation. "Do not let her catch you calling her that! Professor McGonagall is very nice but also very strict. It would not to do to aggravate her in your very first week, young sir."

Sirius just shrugged. "Hey, we did not introduce ourselves earlier, did we? That over there are James and Peter, that's Remus and I'm Sirius." The ghost bowed his head our direction, a gesture that, for some reason or other, seemed to make his head wobble. I blinked, sure that my eyes must have been playing tricks on me but when I glanced at the others, they were all wearing slightly bewildered expressions on their faces as well.

"Pleasure. I have the honour of being Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpinton, the ghost of Gryffindor House."

"Blimey, that is a … uh… nice name." Sirius bit down onto his lower lip to stop himself from laughing.

"The ghost of Gryffindor house?" I gave Sir Nicholas a curious look. "Does every house have a ghost?"

He nodded. "Yes, indeed. See over there", he indicated a jolly looking corpulent ghost sitting at the Hufflepuff table. "That is the Fat Friar, the Hufflepuff ghost. And that, at the Ravenclaw table, is the White Lady. The Slytherin ghost, the Bloody Baron, does not seem to have arrived yet. I suspect Peeves is keeping him busy again."

"Peeves?" This time it as James who had spoken up. Sir Nicholas turned in his direction, a surprised look on his face.

"You have not met Peeves yet? Well, that certainly is a surprise. You will soon, though. Peeves is a poltergeist… and he's a handful, I dare say. Very peculiar little chap, he is. His favourite pastime is roaming the castle and looking for ways to cause havoc. The only one who can remotely keep him in hand is the Bloody Baron." Chuckling, Sir Nicolas shook his head again and once again, it wobbled distinctly on his neck.

"Say, Sir Nicholas, is there something… wrong with your head? Call me crazy but I just had the impression that it was sort of … wobbling?" James looked at him curiously, while I kicked his shin under the table, making him wince and give me a dark look.

Sir Nick's smile turned melancholically. "Well, my dear boy. The reason for that may be this…" with that he grabbed his head and pulled it to one side, making Peter shriek in dismay and turn slightly green at the sight. To be quite honest, my stomach gave an unpleasant lurch as well at the sight of the ghost's head hanging limply, the only thing still connecting it to the rest of his body were a few strings of transparent sinew. James and Sirius, though, seemed fascinated by the view, staring at him with their mouths wide open, making me kick both of them to stop them from staring.

"Wow, what happened to you?"

"Beheading gone wrong. But maybe I will tell you this tale another time, as your friend over there already looks distinctly green." Our eyes flashed to Peter and sure enough, his skin colour had a sickly green tinge to it, bearing slight resemblance to his and James' potion. I couldn't help the grin this thought caused and hastily lowered my head to my plate. Sirius did not seem to have missed it, though, as he elbowed me lightly in the ribs, tutting at me mockingly with a chuckle.

James, Sir Nick and I then engaged into a lively discussion of the lessons we had so far, until Sirius suddenly interrupted us with a shout of "I've got it!"

As we all turned to give him a curious look, he beamed at Sir Nick. "Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Whatsit is such a hoity toity name, don't you think?"

"It's Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpinton … and just what do you mean, hoity toity?" The indignation in Sir Nicholas voice was not to be overheard. Sirius did not seem to realize this, though, still beaming at everyone.

"Nearly Headless Nick!" He grinned excitedly. "Suits you just fine, don't you think?"

The ghost stared at him for a moment, taken aback and then cleared his throat.

"I actually prefer Sir Nicholas…. Sounds much more dignified." Sirius snorted and shook his head energetically. "Sounds ancient, that's more like it! But Nearly Headless Nick, that makes you sound young and dynamic!"

James grinned and nodded enthusiastically. "It does have a nice ring to it."

"I don't know." Sir Nicholas pursed his lips, seemingly unsure what to do or say, giving me a look asking for help.

"Sirius, you can't just walk around the castle giving everyone nicknames. First Severus Snape, then Professor McGonagall and now Sir Nicholas. Who's next… Professor Dumbledore? The Minister for Magic?"

Sirius turned towards the teacher's table, mockingly rubbing his chin in thought while scrutinizing Dumbledore. "Hm, let me think…"

"Oh, c'mon Remus, don't be such a bore." James nudged my foot under the table. "I think Nearly Headless Nick sounds great!"

"So do I!" Sirius nodded vigorously and without waiting for any further comments, he jumped up, grabbing his goblet filled with pumpkin juice and started sprinkling an increasingly bewildered Sir Nicolas with drops of the juice while shouting loud enough for the whole Great Hall to hear: "I hereby christen thee Nearly Headless Nick! All hail, Nearly Headless Nick, the ghost of Gryffindor Tower, where dwell the brave at heart."

"In your case mad as a hatter would fit just fine as well." I had only meant to mutter that under my breath but as the whole Great Hall had fallen silent at Sirius' declaration, the whole Gryffindor table at the very least seemed to have heard me, as a sudden roar of laughter and clapping erupted around me and Sirius whipped around, throwing the rest of the pumpkin juice in my face with a "I heard that, Remus!"

Spluttering in indignation, I wiped the pumpkin juice out of my face but couldn't help laughing as well at the sight of James accompanying his roaring laughter with slapping the table with his hands repeatedly and even Peter had joined the general hilarity.

Sirius flopped back down onto the bench next to me, howling with laughter himself. Punching my shoulder, he uttered between barks of laughter "Damn, Remus, it did not know you had it in you to actually sass someone. You keep surprising me."

"To Remus!" James raised his own glass of pumpkin juice with a grin. "And to Sirius, our lovable little nutter!"

"It may be a very uncommon action for a Slytherin, but to that I'll toast", a cheerful voice came from right behind us. Sirius' cousin Andromeda was standing right behind him, leaning across her cousin to clink her glass against James', glancing at us expectantly. "Well, what are you lot waiting for? I thought this was supposed to be a toast?"

Grinning the rest of us raised our glasses as well and we all toasted, Sir Nicholas shaking his head again but giving us a smile.

"Hey there, Andie!" Sirius smiled up at his older cousin who set her glass down on our table and ruffled his hair affectionately.

"Hey there, little cousin. How was your first day?"

"Well, the morning sucked as you are probably well aware of but the rest of the day was great." Andie rested her hand on his shoulder, a bit of a dark look crossing her face at the first part of his statement. "I'm sorry, Sirius. I wish I could tell you that your mother will just need to get used to the idea – … "

" – but that is not going to happen any time soon." Sirius finished for her with a bitter smile. "Yeah, I know. Well, what is she going to do? Send me a howler every single day? Turn up here and shout at Dumbledore? Let her. I don't care."

Andromeda opened her mouth to say something but stopped, biting down on her lip and then smiling affectionately down at her cousin. "That's my boy! Don't let them get you down Sirius. And nice christening of your house ghost just now." She ruffled his hair again and then shot a look back to her own table. "I need to go now. You lot take care, all right? Sirius, you know where to find me if you need me."

As we had gone back up to our dormitory after dinner and were animatedly talking about everything that had happened that day, I noticed that Sirius seemed a little bit too quiet, especially considering his usually exuberant behaviour. He sat on his bed, his arms slung around his knees and stared off into space, seemingly lost in thoughts.

"Sirius, are you all right?" James seemed to have noticed, too, as he was staring at Sirius with a worried crease on his forehead.

Sirius looked up, startled and then just sighed and let his chin rest on his knees again. "Fine. Andie just reminded me that I'll probably be having the pleasure of sitting through another screech attack of my mother's."

"What's up with her anyway?", Peter piped up. "Why is she so set on you being in Slytherin?"

Sirius huffed a bitter laugh. "Well, only because every single family member of our Noble House of Black", there was the sneer again, "has been in Slytherin. I am the first one to end up somewhere else. And well, you heard her this morning. Her views are rather… well, let's say it how it is, she's barking!"

With that he sat up straight again and gave us his usual grin, even though it seemed a little strained to me. "But enough about me now. How about we get to know each other a little better? You already know that my family is nuts but what about yours? Where do you live, what do your parents do? Any particular quirks or family traditions?"

James laughed. "Well, I am a pureblood but certainly not one your family would approve of since the Potter family is one of those deemed a blood traitor family, as you probably well know, Sirius." The latter gave a curt nod, a grim look on his face. "But my parents are great, we get along really well. We live in a London suburb, not too far away from Diagon Alley. I am an only child, even though I've always wanted a brother. But yeah… my parents are great. My father taught me to fly a broom at the age of four or something and every chance he got, he got me to play Quidditch with him, so I will definitely try out for the Gryffindor team as soon as second year starts."

"Which position?" James glanced over at Sirius. "Chaser. Do you play, too?"

Sirius nodded. "Yes, but unfortunately I don't have the chance to very often. Andromeda used to play with me, though, and sometimes even my little brother. I want to try out for the team as well, for Beater."

"You have a brother?"

"Yes. Regulus, he's a year younger than me. He's all right, I guess. Even though my mother has him firmly in her clutches. What about you, Peter? Remus?"

Peter sat up a little straighter. "Well, you already know I was raised pretty much as a Muggle because my parents had feared for the longest time that I might be a squib because I had shown no obvious signs of any magical powers. But I didn't mind, not really. My mother is a witch and my Dad is a Muggle, he works as a veterinarian. They are pretty cool, I guess. My mother is the most amazing cook ever. We live in Surrey. I am an only child as well." James and Sirius gave him a smile and then turned to me with looks of interest.

Biting down on my lip, I realized I had to be really careful not to divulge too much.

"Well… with me it's exactly the other way around, my Dad is a wizard and my Mum is a muggle. And there's another similarity to Peter, I was raised very much like a Muggle myself. My dad told me all about Hogwarts and magic and everything but I had not had any contact with anyone from the wizarding world apart from him before this year. We live… well, in the middle of nowhere. As Sirius can probably tell you since he met my parents briefly at Platform 9 3/4, we are really close. I miss them." My voice had trailed off a bit at the last sentence and I realized its truth. I really did miss them. I had never been away from them, not even for a day.

"I miss my parents, too." Peter gave me an encouraging yet wobbly smile. James nodded. "Me, too."

"Well, I don't. Big surprise there." Sirius grinned at us.

"Is your family really that bad?" I gave Sirius a questioning look. He shrugged.

"They want me to be somebody that I'm not. Always going on about the purity of wizard blood and upholding the family honour and stuff like that. It gets really annoying. I was so glad when my letter from Hogwarts finally arrived because it meant that I could get out of there."

I had a feeling that there was a lot he was not telling us, reinforced by the bitter expression on his usually so cheerful face and by the look in his eyes which I could not really interpret.

We prattled on about this and that for quite some time until Peter was yawning every two seconds and James had to blink really hard to keep his eyes open. Then we decided that it was probably high time to go to bed. But whereas Peter's snores soon filled the room, I was unable to fall asleep. My mind just wouldn't shut up.

Finally I threw back my covers with a sigh and glancing at the drapes closed around all the other beds silently tiptoed across the room towards the window. I had noticed this morning that there was a small kind of platform near our window, which I should be able to reach easily from there. Casting a look back at the beds of my friends, I tried to open the window as silently as I could and then carefully climbed out of it and hopped onto the platform.

It was still very warm out, the last traces of summer in the air and the sky was beautiful and practically cloudless. With a sigh, I settled back against the wall and turned my head up to watch the stars and the moon. In exactly one week and two days, it would be full again and my nightmare would begin. I closed my eyes at this thought.

I was so happy to be here at Hogwarts. Truly, I had never been so happy in my life. The guys were great and I was already really fond of all three of them. But there was always the thought of my secret in the back of my head. The certainty that they would not like me and want to be friends with me if they knew that I was a werewolf. And there was guilt as well. Guilt for lying to them, for not telling them about something as tremendous as this.

Was I a horrible person? Those three guys slept in a dormitory with a werewolf, even though they were not aware of this. They ran around with a werewolf. They ate with a werewolf. They had class with a werewolf. But they had no idea. How could I keep something like this from them?

I had seen Professor Slughorn's reaction today. The look of apprehension in his eyes. He had covered it up very quickly but I had seen it. And I knew the other guys had noticed this strange reaction to and wondered about it.

Had Dumbledore really been right in letting me come to Hogwarts? Was it really safe?

A soft crunching sound next to made my head fly up. Sirius had dropped onto the platform next to me, grinning at me. "And just what are you thinking so hard about?"

"Nothing." My reply came out way to fast and I automatically winced. Sirius raised his eyebrow in question but did not mention it, instead settling down next to me, glancing at the stars as well.

"Can't sleep either?" He shook his head.

"Nope. I heard you sneaking out and decided to come follow you instead of staring at the ceiling, listening to Peter's snores the whole time. Not really the best kind of lullaby there is."

I smiled at that.

"It's so beautiful here. Kind of like a dream, don't you think?" I let my eyes roam the scenery around us. From our place high up on Gryffindor tower we could see part of the lake, a tiny hut in the distance, very close to the dark shapes of the Forbidden Forest.

"Yes. I keep waiting for me to wake up and realize that I am still at home and that none of this was actually real." Sirius voice had an odd ring to it and when I glanced over at him, his whole posture was rigid as he stared into the distance, an almost haunted look on his face.

"Trust me, I know that feeling! But it is real, Sirius. This, right here, is real. As hard to believe as it may be."

"Do you want to tell me?" I glanced over him again and this time, his eyes met mine.

"About what?"

"About whatever it is that's haunting you." I could feel my whole body go all tense and I hastily tore my eyes away from his and stared at the dark, blurry shapes of the Forbidden Forest again. A sudden coldness had suddenly gripped me and I could feel a shiver running down my back.

"It's ok, you don't have to tell me. You didn't push me to tell you more than I wanted to and neither will I. But Remus, I know that there is something you are hiding… and I want you to know that if you should ever feel the need to share it… or just to have somebody to sit with you, I am here."

You wouldn't be if you knew what I am. I knew Dumbledore would not approve of me thinking in these lines, but it was true, wasn't it? If Sirius knew what it was that I was hiding, he would never be sitting next to me, being my friend.

"Thank you. I appreciate it." Sirius nodded.

"Did I even thank you? For what you did for me today?" At my questioning look, he sighed.

"For coming after me, for sticking up for me. Not a lot of people would have done that."

"Well, I'm not like most people."

At that, he chuckled lightly. "Yes, I gathered that. Guess that's what makes me like so you much, since I am not like most people, either."

And that was all the words we needed. I don't know for how long we actually sat there, in silence, just starting out into the darkness surrounding us. Two people, as different as they could get, yet so very similar at the same time. United by pain. United by the fact that we were two odd ones out in a world that did not seem to understand us at all, a world that seemed hell bent on knocking us down every chance we got. But right now, at that moment, this did not matter. Because for the first time in our lives, we were not alone.


	6. Chapter 6 Hagrid

Sirius:

"Where is my Transfiguration book? Has anyone seen it?" Hanging upside down, trying to look underneath my bed for the offending book, I nearly slipped and only narrowly avoided falling to the ground.

"Good god, Sirius, would you please stop trying to break your neck? As for the book, how about you look for it in the last space that you put it, you slob?" Remus cast an impatient look at his watch, exchanging a meaningful glance with James.

"Very helpful, Remus, thank you very much. And just for your information: I am not leaving without my book!"

"Well, then we are leaving without you because I won't be late for McGonagall's lesson again."

"Hey, it's not only me. Peter is still in the bathroom. And besides, how about you stop nagging and help me search for my book?"

"And just why would we do that?" James grinned at me cheerfully. "Watching you tear our room apart is far more fun." I gave him a dark look, as I jumped down from my bed and started to search the mess on the floor. Where on earth did I put the ruddy thing?

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm ready, we can go!" Peter hustled out of the bathroom, grabbed his bag and hastily joined the other two at the door, giving them an apologetic look.

"Bloody hell, where is this bloody book?" Throwing my hands up in surrender, I glared around the room until my eyes finally landed on my friends, two of whom were exchanging distinctly evil grins.

Suspicion arose within me. "James, Remus… You would not by chance have any idea where my book could possibly be?"

Remus gave me an innocent smile. "Hm… Do you mean… this book?" He pulled a book out of his bag, which I instantly recognized as my Transfiguration book since it already looked pretty battered. I had thrown it at James a few days ago, narrowly missing him and hitting the door instead.

"YOU!" With a roar, I propelled myself in my friends' direction, who had taken this as his cue to tear open the door to our dormitory and take off running with James right by his side. The door nearly hit my face as I followed them, eliciting another stream of curses, which made Peter gasp in shock. Normally, I would have mocked him for this but right now, I was too intent on pursuing my two other friends and getting them back for this.

"Run for your lives! I'll get you sooner or later! And trust me, I will get you for this. I've been searching for the last twenty minutes!"

"Well, maybe you should take better care of your possessions then!" James was still laughing. As I reached the common room after them, I could only just see them disappearing out of the portrait hole. Those little rats.

Tearing after them, I jumped out of the portrait hole… and crashed right into someone. A surprised oomph, my startled gasp and an outraged "Mr Black!" echoed through the corridor.

As I raised my eyes, I looked straight into Albus Dumbledore's twinkling blue ones and then they shifted towards McGonagall glaring daggers at me, her hands on her hips. Just perfect.

"Oh dear. Sorry Professor Dumbledore. I certainly did not mean to run into you, are you ok?"

He only laughed jovially and held his hand out to help me to my feet again, as I had actually lost my footing at the impact. "Oh, not to worry, Mr Black. It takes a lot more than a first year to take me down." I grinned a bit sheepishly at that, my eyes roaming the corridor and finally fixing on what I had been looking for. James and Remus had obviously stopped at the sound of the crash and turned to see what had just happened. As it was obvious that nobody was hurt, both were now laughing harder than ever. James was doubled over whereas Remus was trying to stifle his laughter behind his hand, lurking at the corner of the corridor. As my eyes met his, he hastily grabbed James' arm and pulled him after him, both of their shoulders shaking.

"I will get you for this, Remus! Trust my words! And you, James!" Their laughter was still too be heard, even after they had disappeared.

"What just happened?" I turned my head to look at Peter, who was standing right before the portrait of the Fat Lady, glancing from me to the two teachers with an expression of utter confusion on his face while the Fat Lady was trying very hard to stifle her laughter behind him.

"Well, I just met Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore in the hall for some tea… What does it look like? I crashed straight into the Headmaster while I was pursuing those two idiots." When I glanced back at the two teachers, I could see that Professor Dumbledore's lips had pulled into an amused smile while Professor McGonagall gave me her best stern look.

"I'm really sorry, Headmaster!" Dumbledore shook his head with a chuckle. "It's quite alright, Mr Black. Just out of curiosity though, what did Mr Lupin and Mr Potter do to deserve your wrath?"

"Those sneaky bastards stole my book. Wait a minute… Transfiguration starts in like… three minutes. Why are you still here, Professor?" I gave Professor McGonagall an inquiring look.

"Oh well, you do seem to be able to master the reading of a clock then, Mr Black. Why don't you run along then and make sure you make it to the classroom in the… two minutes that are still left?" Instead of moving, though, I gave her a searching look, as I had noticed the dark look that had crossed her face at my question. Somehow, I had the feeling that it had had nothing to with the question itself.

"Is everything quite all right, Professor?" I did not know whether I had imagined it but her eyes seemed to have softened for just a moment at that but then she immediately resumed her usual posture and gestured impatiently for me to move.

"Yes, of course, Mr Black and I suggest that you and Mr Pettigrew over there will be on your way now or I will have to give you detention for being late for the second time in a row. So run along now, both of you."

Shrugging, I grabbed Peter's arm and pulled him along. "Why thank you for giving us the option to spend more time with you after class, Professor, I'm sure it would be quite lovely. Unfortunately, I'm afraid I don't have time for detention at the moment. But never fear, the moment will come when I will be gracing your evenings with my presence after class." I jokingly winked at her, hearing Peter gasp beside me at my insolence, and then gave Dumbledore a respectful nod.

Pulling sharply on Peter's arm, I practically dragged him behind me around the next corner, out of the view of the two teachers. I had no intention whatsoever of going to class yet, though. The corner might hide us from view, but they were not out of earshot yet. Raising my index finger to my lips and giving Peter a warning look, I tiptoed back to the corner and leaned against the wall there, listening intently.

"What are you doing? Professor McGonagall told us…-"

"Shhh! I know just fine what she told us but I want to hear what they talk about now… So shut up, will you." Biting down on my lower lip and glaring at Peter for a second, I then concentrated once again on what was going on only a few feet away from us.

"Do you think we should tell him?"

"About the fact that he is not the only one his mother is terrorizing with howlers every day? No, there's nothing he can do about it anyway." What? Did they mean what I think they meant? My mother had been writing to Dumbledore as well?

"She's a piece of work, Walburga is. The boy has hardly been here for a week and is already notorious all over the school… for what his mother is putting him through. The howlers are getting nastier and nastier. It's incredible, the way he's handling it. Every other kid would run out of the hall as quick as their feet can bear them at receiving a howler, but he… sits through it for the whole Great Hall to hear, stoically eating his breakfast as if he doesn't have a care in the world."

"Yes, it's quite impressive, isn't it?" Dumbledore's low chuckle rang through the corridor.

"Well…yes, but Albus, you can't let this go on. The poor boy has had to sit through breakfast every single day since he has got here with his mother screaming insults at him at the top of her voice for every other student, teacher and ghost to hear. We can't let this go on, he's just a boy!"

At that precise moment, I heard someone clearing his throat behind us and then a distinctly disapproving whisper "Eavesdroppin' on the teacher, are ye?" Whirling around and as a reflex immediately clapping my hand on Peter's mouth to stop him from squealing, I stared into Hagrid's beady dark eyes, staring down at the two of us, his hands on his hips.

I hastily sneaked a look around the corner to check if Professors Dumbledore and McGonagall had heard anything but they were still deeply in conversation. Then I raised my eyes again to meet Hagrid's, a sheepish smile on my face. "Well, yes… but to my defence… they were talking about me."

Hagrid snorted. "Yeah, I heard. Mad cow, that mother of yours. Heard her shriekin' from the Great Hall that mornin'. Enough to give anyone a headache." I heartily agreed with that statement, feeling my stomach clench unpleasantly at the thought of my mother's daily way to ruin my morning.

Hagrid sighed and clapped his hand on my shoulder. "Don't you think on it, boy! Now… this once, I will not give you away for eavesdropping, but you really should run along now. Go on!" He gave me a light shove, winking at us with a conspiratorial twinkle in his eyes.

I gave him a quick smile of gratitude and then pulled Peter after me in the direction of the classroom again.

"Oi! Why don't ye drop by my place later? I live in the cabin down by the forest. Drop by for some tea around five o' clock tonight and bring along those other two friends of yours, why don't ye", Hagrid whisper hissed, giving us another smile which I returned with a nod and a whispered assurance that we would be there.

Thanks to Hagrid not giving us away we had managed to arrive at Transfiguration ten minutes late, but still before Professor McGonagall's arrival, who did not seem to have noticed our eavesdropping. For the rest of the morning, I was too preoccupied to even think about James' and Remus' silly prank with the book anymore. I had already grown kind of used to the thought of getting a howler from my lovely mother every single morning and did my best to uphold my I could give a crap façade but I had had no idea that she had been complaining to Dumbledore as well. What if she managed to convince him to transfer me to Slytherin house? What if she managed to aggravate him so badly that he would have me thrown out of school? Why couldn't she just let this go?

The others seemed to have noticed that there was something bothering me, I could feel their eyes on me and occasionally caught James and Remus exchanging concerned looks. But the lessons kept us busy so that they did not have any time to interrogate me. Not so much at lunch, however.

"All right, Sirius. Enough is enough. What's going on with you?" James stared at me with both of his eyebrows raised. "You've barely said a word all morning, not even bothering to bicker with McGonagall. And if there is one thing I've already learnt about you in these past few days, it is that you normally can't keep your mouth shut for longer than two minutes.

I just shrugged, pushing my steak and kidney pie around my plate. James' eyebrows raised even further and he cast another look at Remus, who looked just as concerned as he did.

"And nothing ever keeps you from eating! Not even your foul mother's wailing every morning." As I didn't react, James chucked a piece of his own pie at me, hitting me right on the forehead.

"Is this about the conversation between Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore we overheard earlier?" Peter's question made both James' and Remus' heads snap towards him.

"What conversation?" Peter gave me an anxious look and then shrugged, looking at the other two.

"Before we came to class this morning, we overheard Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore talking. Well, overheard… more like we were eavesdropping on them when they thought we had left for class. We didn't hear much, though, that Hagrid caught us." His gaze shifted towards me again, unsure whether I was mad at him for telling. With a sigh, I raised my eyes to meet his and gave him a weak smile.

"What were they talking about?" This time it was Remus, who was looking at me intently.

"Well, just about the fact that apparently I am not the only one Mommy dearest has been sending those lovely howlers." My voice was laced with bitterness, as I poked at my food.

"Wait a moment… you don't mean…" James trailed off, staring at me incredulously.

"That she's been sending letters to Dumbledore? Indeed, that is exactly what I am saying, James." I was beginning to stab more and more viciously at the pie, imagining it were my mother's face.

"What if she manages to convince him that I would be better off in Slytherin? Or worse yet, what if she manages to insult him so badly that he kicks me out of school?" Before I had even managed to finish my sentence, I could feel Remus grabbing my arm, shaking his head wildly.

"No way! No way is Dumbledore going to kick you out of school because of something your mother did. And he is not going to transfer you to Slytherin. I am sure of it, Sirius. Don't you worry about that."

"Easier said than done." I threw down my fork and let my head drop down onto my arms. "God, she manages to screw up everything. Even if she is several hundred miles away."

The others were quiet for a few moments. When I raised my head again, I could tell that they were worried about me, their eyes darting to me every few seconds, a distinctly concerned expression on their faces. Forcing a smile, I ran a hand through my hair and then shook it out nonchalantly.

"Oh, don't mind me, guys. I'm fine. Just a little bit annoyed and honestly, a bit worried." The understatement of the year!

"Oh, by the way, Hagrid invited us to come see him in his cabin for some tea at 5 o'clock. All four of us. I'd told him we'd be there, I hope that is all right with all of you?"

For the rest of the meal I tried to act as normally as I could but I still had the feeling that I did not fool them as well as I had hoped. The afternoon classes went by very quickly and soon 5 o'clock arrived, so we made our way down to Hagrid's cabin.

"Why did he invite us again?" Remus gave Peter and me an inquiring look.

I shrugged. "Dunno. I think he likes us. And how could he not, we are delightful." I gave Remus a big grin, chuckling at him rolling his eyes. "By the way, I did not forget the whole book incident this morning and I will pay you back for this." James and Remus exchanged mischievous grins and then both started chuckling uncontrollably.

"You should have seen your face right after you had crashed straight into Dumbledore. It was hilarious." I poked my tongue out at James, making him laugh even more.

Hagrid's cabin was not too far away from the castle. It certainly looked cosy but my focus was drawn away from it by the towering mass of the Forbidden Forest behind it.

"Why do you think students are not allowed in there?" My eyes roamed the dark trees, which were rippling in the light breeze. It did not look that threatening by daylight.

"Hm…let me think… probably because it's dangerous?" Remus glanced in the direction of the forest as well before giving me a close look.

"I am not sure I like whatever it is you are thinking about, Sirius!" A guilty grin appeared on my face.

"Oh, c'mon, aren't you just a tiny little bit interested what's in there?"

"No, as a matter of fact I am not! The teachers will have their reasons for wanting to keep us out of there. " James and Peter, who had noticed Remus and me lagging behind, had stopped and were now waiting for us.

"Out of where?" James looked at us curiously.

"The Forbidden Forest." I saw James' gaze shift towards the forest and then back towards us, a spark of interest in his eyes. Peter, though, gave the mass of tress only a very fleeting look and then shuddered. "You can't seriously think of going there? It's off limits to students!"

"So what? It's not like we'd announce to the whole school." I grinned at James who definitely looked intrigued by the idea.

"You can't be serious! I don't like the look of that forest. There are probably lots of dangerous creatures and monsters in there… you know, werewolves and stuff." Peter gave another shudder, staring at the two of us with wide eyes.

I rolled my eyes. "God, you're a wimp, Peter!"

"We really should get going. Hagrid is expecting us, isn't he?" Remus pushed past us, making his way towards the cabin without a glance at us. James gave me a look, raising an eyebrow.

"Guess he doesn't like the idea very much either." I just shrugged and we set off to follow him. "Doesn't mean we can't go in there, right?" James gave me a broad grin which I took as a yes as an answer as Remus reached the door of the cabin and knocked twice, still not looking at us.

The door was swept open almost immediately and Hagrid's broad face beamed at us. "Ah there ye are! Come on in, go on." He gave us a wink and gestured us inside. "I've just made tea and some rock cakes, if ye'd like some to go with the tea."

I curiously looked around the cabin, marvelling at the multitude of sketches of fierce or strange looking beasts, which decorated the walls along with other strange things. The others had already settled around Hagrid's table while he was pouring them some tea while I still walked from picture to picture, peering at them with some interest.

"The pictures won't disappear any time soon, but the tea will get cold." Hagrid gave me another big smile, indicating the chair right next to him. Casting another glance at the picture I had just been looking at, which I was pretty sure showed a young hippogriff, I trotted over to the table and flopped down onto the chair, grabbing one of the rock cakes Hagrid had put on a platter in the middle of the table and bit into it. "OW!" Thankfully Hagrid had chosen that particular moment to return the now empty tea kettle to its place at the kitchen area and had his back to us, as I was grimacing in pain, hastily spitting the cake into my hand and feeling if my teeth were all still in place. Good gracious, those things had the consistency of cement. I really was surprised I hadn't managed to break a tooth. I could feel a light touch at my side; and when I looked down I saw Remus holding a tissue to me under the table. Hastily, I wrapped the cake in the tissue and stuffed it into the pocket of my trousers, giving Remus a grateful little smile and glaring at James and Peter who were both guffawing.

"Did I miss somethin'?" Hagrid had returned to the table, glancing at us curiously.

"No, no! Just something from class today, it's really not that interesting", James improvised.

Hagrid did not seem entirely convinced but just shook his head with a smile and sat down.

"So, I've been wanting to get to meet the four of ye closer ever since yer performance on the lake. I must say, I've been taking the firs' years to the castle for more than ten years now and I've never had six students fallin' in the lake before. Looks like the four of ye have a bit of a penchant for mischief, am I right?" The skin around his eyes crinkled as he was not even trying to conceal his grin.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that." James grinned broadly. "Watch out, Hagrid. It's only our first year, but I will make a prophecy now. You mark my words, gentlemen: Even years after we will have left his school, people will still remember our names. What am I saying, they will not only remember our names, they will whisper the names James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew in awe, admiring the legacy we have left behind."

I couldn't help grinning and raised my mug of tea. "To that I drink! Cheers!" Remus looked distinctly amused, shaking his head with a soft chuckle as James clinked his mug loudly against mine before imitating him; Peter following suit. Hagrid watched us in bemusement, shaking his head as well.

"Barely arrived here and already thinking about your legacy, are ye? Well, I'm guessing it won't ever be boring with the four ye here. Thought it might get a bit dull now that Fabian and Gideon have left." He took a deep gulp of his tea, set his mug down and then took a closer look at us.

"So… Let me see if I've got this right. You are James, right? Yes, I thought so, I knew your father when he was a student here, you have his looks. And you're Sirius, of course, I guess all of the castle knows the looks of you already." I grimaced at that statement, reminded again of what had had me down all day, staring down at the liquid in my mug.

"So … you are obviously Peter and Remus, but who is who?" As Remus and Peter introduced themselves, I could feel myself slipping once again into the agitated state I had been all day. How far would my mother be prepared to go to have me transferred to Slytherin? And how far would Dumbledore let her this before snapping and kicking me out? From all that I had heard about Dumbledore before, he was quite the tough cookie, but my mother could drive anyone insane. With a brief start, I realized that I had not been thinking about Regulus in days. My poor little brother, alone at that loony bin with our parents and Kreacher. Well, at least he had always been their favourite so it was to be hoped that they would not use him as an outlet for the bad mood I had put them in.

"You all right there, Sirius?" This question finally managed to snap me out of my haze of nervous thoughts and I glanced up at Hagrid. "Huh?"

"Eloquent as ever", murmured Remus drily, earning himself an elbow to the ribs.

Hagrid gave me a concerned look. "Are ye doing all righ'? Ye seem … preoccupied."

"He's been like that all day. And no wonder, after what is weirdo of a mother is making him go through day after day." James gave me a worried look. "He's had us all worried, normally he never stops yammering on all day but today, he can hardly get himself to string more than two words together."

Hagrid's eyes were still resting firmly on me.

"Yeah, I've noticed those howlers."

"Would be pretty hard not to, wouldn't it?" I grimaced and took a sip of my tea, faking my usual air of nonchalance mixed with annoyance.

"I knew your mother to. Hated her!" This comment made my head snap up immediately and my lips pulled into a smile automatically. Hagrid grinned at my reaction. Before he could add anything else, Peter suddenly shrieked loudly, jumping up and nearly smashing his mug in the process.

"What is it?" Hagrid and the rest of us had jumped up in shock as well, glancing wildly around as to spot the source of the commotion.

"U… under the table. It brushed against my leg, something furry." Curious, I bent down to peer beneath the table, admittedly jumping when my eyes met big glowing animal eyes staring back at me. "Uh, Hagrid? What is that?" I gave the animal another curious look.

"Oh, it's probably just Vladimir." I nearly hit my head against the table as I raised my head so quickly, giving Hagrid an incredulous stare. "Vladimir?!"

He nodded vigorously, crouching down as well, trying to scoop the animal out from under the table. "Vladimir. Now, c'mere little one. Hungry, are ye? Startling poor little Peter, are ye, ye rascal." At that, he raised himself upright again, cradling the animal tenderly in his huge arms.

"It's just a niffler, Peter. He won't hurt ye, they are quite harmless. Make quite a mess of houses, but they are quite sweet." Peter still seemed very unsure whether to believe him, still maintaining a safe distance of a few steps from the two of them.

I, on the other hand, was curious and stepped forwards to have a closer look. "He really is cute. But… why Vladimir?" I ran my fingers gently over the brown fur of the niffler, grinning as its beady black eyes were peering at me with what looked almost like a mischievous expression.

"Why not Vladimir? It's cute, that name, isn't it?" I gave him an incredulous look and then exchanged a quick grin with James and Remus, who had both stepped closer as well. As James reached out to pet Vladimir, though, the little guy's eyes suddenly grew much larger and it lunched itself forward and right at James, who jumped backwards with a startled shout.

"Oh, not ter worry, not ter worry. It's only yer watch he's after, he won't hurt ye." Hagrid chuckled, holding firmly onto Vladimir who was now struggling to get out of his arms, still staring intently at James… or more precisely James' arm.

"My… watch?" James' eyes jumped from Hagrid to the animal in his arms and then back again.

"Well, yes. Nifflers love anything that's shiny, you know. Gold; jewellery; watches, anything will do. They really are sweet and gentle creatures, but as soon as they see something shiny, they will lunch themselves at it and turn into nasty little buggers until they've got what they want. You'd better put that watch in the cupboard for now or he will continue to try to get at your arm for the rest of your time here." James obeyed, still glancing curiously at the niffler.

"Wait, are you saying… Nifflers are gold-diggers?" I guffawed at that, petting the nifflers's head again with a broad grin. "I like him!"

"Is he like your pet or something, Hagrid?" James had returned, still scrutinizing the niffler with interest.

"Oh no, they don't make good pets, nifflers do. Destroy houses, ye know. No, they live in the forest, but he seems to like it here, likes to pay me a visit. Sleeps in a box right outside of my door most days, ye must have walked right past it."

We spent another hour at Hagrids, drinking tea and playing with niffler, who turned out to be quite a lively creature. As we made to return to the castle, Hagrid held me back for a second and gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Don't ye let that mother of yours get ye down, do ye hear me? Maybe she'll get a cold and lose her voice." I snorted, highly entertained at that thought.

"I'll try. Thanks Hagrid." He gave me a big smile and then glanced around at all of us. "Ye are welcome to come visit me any time. It gets a bit boring around here and from what I've seen today, ye are good company." We promised him we'd be back soon and then set off towards the castle.


	7. Chapter 7 Mrs Black Attack

The next day passed pretty much uneventful, my mother's howlers were starting to become a regularity and classes were ok as well. McGonagall was as stern as ever, but I found I really liked her classes and Transfiguration seemed to come easy to James, Remus and me, who mostly managed to get all the spells in one lesson whereas most of the others took slightly longer. As did Charms, where I found myself growing increasingly fond of tiny Professor Flitwick after he replied to me cursing loudly after screwing up my first attempt at a levitation spell with a fit of laughter and a big wink. Plus, he commented on my suggestion of all the possibilities this spell harboured for pranksters, with the comment "On no account are you to levitate Professor McGonagall, or she will be after your blood. I tried it once… let's just say that it ended with me in the Hospital Wing and not able to sit properly for days." Yes, I definitely liked that man.

The afternoon Double Potions class was highly uneventful. Whereas James on the table next to us had taken control of the cauldron and had restricted Peter to read the instructions aloud and hand him the ingredients; Remus and I made quite the good team. It helped perhaps that I seemed to have a bit of a knack for potions.

I should have known this was too good to be true.

As we sat at dinner that very day, there was suddenly a very loud commotion outside of the Great Hall. Most of the students looked up in question and glanced first in the direction of the noise and then at the teacher's table. The teachers had stopped eating and were exchanging surprised or suspicious looks as well.

Much like the rest of the other students I had turned my head towards the source of the noise in interest when a loud "Who do you think you are to tell me what to do, you filthy squib!" ran through the castle. At the sound of that particular voice, I froze mid-chew, my fork dropping to the table with a clang. James, Remus and Peter, who had been looking at the doors as well, gave me curious looks, taking in my probably shocked expression in surprise. I could feel my stomach clenching unpleasantly, whereas my blood seemed to freeze in my veins. No… it couldn't be. Oh God.

As the entrance doors swung open and a loud "Don't you dare touch me, you slimy little creature!" echoed through the Great Hall, I closed my eyes with a wince, not even having to take a look to know that I had not been mistaken. I would know that voice anywhere. What in the world was she doing here? Was it not enough that she tormented me with her howlers in front of everyone every single day? Now she had to do it in person?

Remus seemed to have connected the dots… or recognized her voice as well, since I could feel his hand on my arm, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"Dumbledore, I'm sorry, I told them they could not come …-" The voice of Argus Filch, the Hogwarts caretaker was cut off by my mother's.

"Since my letters seem to have accomplished nothing, I have decided to pay you a visit in person, Dumbledore!" Slowly, I opened my eyes again and turned my head slightly to chance a brief look at Dumbledore, who had gotten to his feet, as had the rest of the teachers. Whereas Dumbledore retained his usual calm and slightly amused demeanour, McGonagall's eyes were glaring daggers at my mother and most of the other teachers seemed bewildered and unsure how to react.

"Walburga, Orion, how nice to see you. As you see, you've chosen a rather inopportune moment as we are currently eating. But perhaps the two of you would like to join us for a bite of food?" I cringed again. My father was here as well. Oh dear, this was bad. This was really, really bad.

"No thank you very much. We did not come to eat, we just want to get this highly embarrassing issue over with in order to restore the reputation of the Noble House of Black!" I silently mouthed the last four words along with her, rolling my eyes.

James' eyes widened. "No… This is your MOTHER? They are your parents?" His voice sounded just as shocked as I felt. I simply gave him a dark look and a grunt as a reply. The shock in his eyes immediately turned to pity, which was even worse in my opinion.

At the sound of the name Black, a wave of murmuring went through the hall and I felt the eyes on me, cringing internally. Yes, go on. Stare at the freak! Stare at him, why don't you? Remus squeezed my arm even harder, slipping his hand down to close his fingers over mine. Thankful for his show of support, I briefly squeezed back to let him know that I was ok. Then I let my eyes finally wander to where my mother and father stood next to the caretaker, whose face was flushed, seemingly fuming.

Whatever else they might be, my parents certainly were impressive to behold. My father was a stately, handsome man with dark hair whereas my mother was strikingly beautiful in a cold way. Her pitch-black curls contrasted harshly against her pale ivory skin and her eyes were a dark grey, almost black. As usual, she was dressed impeccably and had dotted her attire with a multitude of jewellery, including several necklaces and bracelets, most of them adorned with the symbol of Slytherin house, a snake.

With her back straight as a ramrod and my father at her heels, she strode straight towards the teacher's table, tossing her curls back over her shoulder and glaring at Dumbledore.

"Well, maybe you would prefer to talk in my office, Walburga, instead of in front of the students?" Dumbledore's voice remained friendly and perfectly polite, but there was a hint of finality in it that clearly held a warning aimed at my mother, not to go too far.

She huffed but then nodded. "All right. Lead the way." She mockingly gestured towards the door. Dumbledore exchanged a quick look with Professor McGonagall, then both of them got up and made their way down towards where my parents were standing. Dumbledore gave the still shaking Filch a smile and a pat on the shoulder. "You must excuse Mrs Black, Argus. She is very upset at the moment." Filch just sputtered and then went to exit the hall with another dark look at my mother, who gave him a look of disgust I knew only too well.

Then Dumbledore turned around and his eyes found me. "Could you please join us in my office after you have finished your dinner, Mr Black? There's no need to hurry, enjoy your dinner in peace. Sir Nicolas will take you to my office as soon as you have finished." At my nod, he gave me a wink and a smile and then strode towards the doors. My eyes followed him for a brief moment and when I looked back towards my parents and Professor McGonagall, my eyes met my mother's. If looks could kill, I would be dead on the floor right now. She let her eyes roam the table I was sitting at for a second before coming back to me and giving me a look of utter disgust. Even though I could feel my hands starting to shake, I held her gaze without flinching, staring back at her with what I hoped was an indifferent expression. I must have done a good job since her eyes narrowed even further and she spat "Ungrateful little swine! I'll deal with you later, you insult to the name of Black!", before she whirled around and marched after Dumbledore, my father following her. Professor McGonagall lingered behind for just a second, giving me a brief nod of encouragement, before joining them.

Letting out a breath I didn't know I had been holding I turned back around and closed my eyes for just a second. "Wow! You could freeze ice with your mother's arse." James' crude comment actually managed to make me snort and I looked up to meet my friends' eyes. Peter looked shell-shocked, James derisive and Remus' expression was a mixture of concern and anger. "Yeah, you could." I rubbed my hands over my face, definitely not hungry anymore. Besides, I had to join them in Dumbledore's office at some time later anyway, so better to get it over with.

Letting go of Remus' hand, which I had been clutching all this time, I shoved my plate away with a sigh. "Well, I'll get going then. The quicker I get it over with, the quicker this'll be over." As I heard the sound of chairs scraping across the floor, I glanced up in surprise to see that James and Remus had both gotten up as well. Seeing the expression on my face, James snorted.

"What? You really thought we'd let you deal with this on your own? We're coming with you."

As I started to protest, James cut me off with an abrupt gesture. "Forget it. We're coming with you and that's final." With that he joined Nearly Headless Nick, who was already waiting for us next to the doors, giving me a pitying smile, which nearly managed to make me sick. I hated pity.

As we stepped outside the doors and up the staircase, a thought suddenly hit me and stopped in my tracks. Oh good Lord… I would be in so much trouble if I actually went through with this… but on the other hand, who was she to put me through all of this. All of my life, she had been having a go at me for not being the proper little son she wanted. And now that I had been sorted into Gryffindor… Screw it! With that thought, I whirled around and hastily made my way back down the stairs, hearing the others call my name.

"Sirius! Where are you going? It's this way!" Without turning around, I shouted "I'll be right back. I need to go to Hagrid's for a second."

"Wait up! I'm coming to." James' voice rang out behind me and I heard him tell the others to wait for us before he came running after me, grinning at me. "Brilliant idea, mate!"

A few minutes later we returned, both of our faces carefully composed, wearing identical innocent expressions. Nearly Headless Nick still gave us suspicious looks before shaking his head and leading the way towards Dumbledore's office whereas Peter simply looked puzzled, obviously no idea what was going on. Remus, though, quickly fell into step with us. "Are you sure that's such a good idea?" His voice was so quiet only we could hear him. "Yes!" My voice rang with determination, making Remus sigh and nod in defeat. "All right, then."

As we reached a gargoyle at some sort of entrance, Nearly Headless Nick stopped, saying "Droobles", at which a door at the end of the hall swung open. Nick nodded at me to enter. "We will have to wait here for your return." I nodded at him in return and then gave James a meaningful look. He just grinned and winked at me in return.

A spiral staircase, which bore an uncanny resemblance to those Muggles things, escapators or what they are called, moved swiftly upwards as the wall seemed to slam shut behind me and rose in circles. Feeling a bit dizzy at the whirring of the staircase and at the thought of what was waiting for me, I closed my eyes until I could feel the staircase slowing down and opened my eyes to the sight of a gleaming oak door with a brass knocker in the form of a silver griffon.

Knocking on the door to Dumbledore's office, I cringed as the sound of my mother's shrieking was even to be heard through the thick oak door in front of me. The door opened to reveal McGonagall's face, her lips so thin and pressed together they were almost white. "C'mon in, Mr Black and take a seat." I let my gaze roam the room in front of me, taking in the scene before me. Dumbledore was sitting in the armchair behind his desk, his hands clasped in front of him, giving me a reassuring smile whereas my mother and father were towering above in front of the desk, both had obviously decided to remain standing. Dumbledore gestured to the seat in front of him and with another look at my parents, I made my way over to the chair and sat down, looking up at Dumbledore.

"Now, Mr Black. I'm guessing you know why your parents have come here today." I couldn't help a bitter laugh escaping my lips.

"After all those howlers… no, I have absolutely no idea." My voice was dripping with sarcasm and I could see Dumbledore's lips twitching at my reply.

"You insolent little… This is your headmaster you are talking to! No respect at all!" My mother's voice was a hiss and when I shot her a quick look I was struck by how much she currently resembled the Slytherin emblem. A viper if I ever saw one. And her bite was just as poisonous.

"It's quite all right, Walburga. I appreciate sarcasm, it showcases a quick and agile mind. Now, Sirius… may I call you Sirius?" At my nod, he gave me another smile and continued. "Your parents seem to be quite unhappy" his eyes flashed towards my mother as she hissed at that "about you being sorted into Gryffindor. I can see their surprise, since your whole family had been in Slytherin and you are the first Black ever to have been sorted into any other house. Now, your parents claim that this must have been a mistake. What do you think about this?"

I simply shrugged. "Does the Sorting Hat often make mistakes?" Dumbledore's lips gave another twitch.

"Transfer him to Slytherin, Dumbledore. I won't have him tainting the family name. He belongs in Slytherin!" My mother was practically snarling, her eyes glowing like burning coal.

"Do you want to be in Slytherin, Sirius?" I could feel my eyes widen at this question and they shot up to meet Dumbledore's. Did I want to be in Slytherin? This answer could make or break the ties between my family and me. Just as I had finished that particular thought, I nearly snorted out loud. What ties? I had never been good enough in their eyes anyway.

I returned Dumbledore's gaze as firmly as I could. "Headmaster… do you remember the way I reacted after my Sorting? Did that look to you like I wanted to be in Slytherin?" Encouraged by Dumbledore's lips pulling into a smile, I continued, "Do I believe I should be in Slytherin? I don't know. Do I believe that I have been sorted into Gryffindor by accident? I don't know, but somehow I don't think so." I paused for a second, glancing down at my hands and then raising my eyes to meet Dumbledore's again. "Do I want to be in Slytherin? No!"

Dumbledore kept his eyes firmly locked with mine for another moment and then nodded. "That's all I need to know." With that, he glanced behind me, presumably at my parents. "Well, I believe you have heard him. The only reason for me to have considered transferring him to another house would have been his sincere wish to do so. And as he seems very happy where he is, I believe this issue is settled." At my mother's intake of breath, I closed my eyes with a sigh, preparing for the assault on my ears that was about to come.

"This issue is not settled! We will not have a Gryffindor in the family-"

"Well, obviously you do now, so get used to it!" Professor McGonagall had obviously chosen to join the discussion. As I turned my head to look around at her, she had taken a few steps closer to my mother, glaring at her, her hands on her hips and her head raised high.

My mother just sneered at her. "And why would I listen to you, Minerva?"

McGonagall opened her mouth to retort, but Dumbledore cut in. "Well, she is right, after all. Sirius is in Gryffindor and he will stay in Gryffindor. That is my last word, Walburga."

My mother stared at Dumbledore for a moment, then her eyes flashed to me, the expression in them colder than ever. "You… You abomination that came from my flesh. How could you do this? You've managed to tarnish your family's name within the first few hours at Hogwarts! You are such an embarrassment, Sirius Black! Unworthy of our name, unworthy to call yourself a part of this family! Do you even realize what you have done? And… you don't want to be in Slytherin? What does that mean? You don't WANT to be in Slytherin? You ungrateful little swine, you're shaming the whole family, the whole-"

"Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, I know!" I rolled my eyes. Before I even knew what had happened, my mother had darted forwards and slapped me hard around the face, one of her rings catching me very painfully on the cheekbone. The sting her slap had left was painful enough to make my eyes burn but I would never ever give her the satisfaction of crying.

Before I could react though, my mother was torn away from me and crashed right into the wall behind her. She seemed to dazed to react for a moment and when she looked up again, Professor McGonagall's wand was pressed to her throat, the latter's eyes were blazing with fire. "Never… Never again will you dare to lay hands on any of my students! Never EVER again or I will make you regret it." Her voice was shaken with fury, but her hand was steady and for just a moment, I thought I saw a flicker of uneasiness in my mother's eyes before her usual sneer reappeared.

"He is my son and for me to do with as I please, Minerva."

"Not here at Hogwarts. Here he is in my house, under my protection. Unfortunately I cannot control how you treat him at home, but here at Hogwarts you will never dare touch him again." McGonagall and my mother continued to stare each other down, both livid with anger as Dumbledore got up.

"Minerva, lower your wand please." McGonagall remained in place for just a second longer with a last threatening look at my mother, then dropped her hand and turned around, coming towards me with a two quick steps, grabbing my chin tenderly. "Are you all right, Mr Black?" I nodded, still dazed by what had just happened, struck dumb by the way my teacher had just stuck up at me. She inspected my cheek for a moment, then raised herself to her full height again and stepped behind my chair, resting one of her hands on my shoulder protectively. This gesture really got to me. Whereas my mother's slap had not managed to make me cry, this just might. Feeling my eyes burning traitorously again, I hastily dropped my gaze to my hands, concentrating very hard to keep the tears at bay. This was the second time in a few days that someone had actually stood up for me, defended me. Before Remus and Professor McGonagall, I had never had someone stand up for me, I had always had to fight my battles on my own. It was all I knew. To feel like for once, I was not fighting on my own, felt … well, amazing.

"I do not appreciate students being assaulted on my grounds. As a matter of fact, I condemn any violence against children, no matter where and no matter why. May I trust that this particular action of yours will never ever be repeated?" Dumbledore's voice was quiet, but for the first time, I heard an underlying threat in it, which made a shiver run down my back. Soft-spoken, gentle, yet impressive Dumbledore could certainly be intimidating if he wanted to.

My mother must have reacted to his satisfaction as he followed this by "All right, then. I believe this issue is resolved, so I expect you will want to leave now, am I correct? Or do you want to stay for a nightcap?"

"No thank you." My mother's voice was derisive and as I glanced up again, I saw her sweep past Dumbledore out of the door, followed by my father. McGonagall gave my shoulder a light squeeze, indicating that I should get up as well. She didn't take her hand off my shoulder, though as we followed the other three out of the door. Remembering my plan, I could feel my heart growing a bit lighter in the anticipation of what was about to come. As my mother stepped past the gargoyle, I sneezed loudly, the signal James and I had agreed on, brazing myself for the noise that was about to come. Sure enough, it took only for a few seconds for my mother to let out the loud ear-splitting scream I had predicted as something brown and furry launched itself right at her. Screeching loudly, she stumbled backwards, flailing her arms helplessly to try to dislodge the niffler, who clung to her dress, clutching one of her necklaces in his paws, tearing at it.

"WHAT IS THAT? HELP! ORION! GET THAT AWAY FROM ME! OH, YOU FILTHY LITTLE CREATURE, GET OFF ME! OOOORIIIION!" I couldn't help myself at this sight and burst into laughter, grabbing the gargoyle's stone arm for support.

"Oh dear, I still tried to catch him but he was too fast for me." James had appeared from out of nowhere, Remus beside him, both trying very hard to suppress their laughter.

"GET IT OFF ME! WHAT IS THAT? IT'S TRYING TO KILL ME! HEEEEEEELP!" I was gasping for air, clutching my stomach, bellowing with laughter. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Professor McGonagall fight a smile as she watched my mother with a malicious expression in her eyes and I felt a deep wave of affection for my head of house sweep me.

After Dumbledore had finally managed to calm my mother enough to grab the niffler, he handed it to James with a twinkle in his eyes. "And just how does this niffler happen to be in the castle, Mr Potter?"

It was Remus, who answered, though. "We don't know, professor. We only saw him ourselves a few seconds before he launched himself at Mrs Black, he must have followed Hagrid to the feast. That's Vladimir, he's very fond of Hagrid, likes to follow him around, as he told us only yesterday."

Dumbledore's twitching lips told us that he didn't believe a word of it but he turned around to my mother. "I'm sorry, Walburga. You know, nifflers and their fondness for shiny things."

My mother was out of breath, her eyes still wide with terror and outrage. "This thing… tried to kill me!"

"Oh, c'mon, he was only after your jewellery." With a few quick steps I was beside James and Remus, still grinning broadly and reached out to pet the niffler in James' arms, my eyes meeting James' which were sparkling with barely suppressed laughter.

"Shut your mouth. Don't think I didn't hear you laughing! You had something to do with this, didn't you?" I turned around, giving her an innocent look.

"Why, mother, I was right behind you. How could I have let the niffler lose?" Her eyes narrowed.

"I know you had something to do with this, Sirius!"

"Can you prove it?" Her mouth tightened but before she could begin another onslaught, my father finally decided to speak up. "Walburga, we should really go now. There's nothing we can do about him anymore, he's made his choice." He didn't even look at me as he walked straight past me and down the staircase, as if I was some stranger instead of his son. I could pretend that didn't hurt, even after all these years of him either scolding me or treating me more or less like thin air, but then I would be lying.

My mother made to follow him but came to a halt next to us, glancing at James, Remus and Peter who had finally dared to join us as well.

"So you are the boys he runs around with here at Hogwarts, Bella has told me about you." She cast a disdainful look down at Peter, who blinked up at her like a scared baby rabbit.

"What's your blood status?" I could feel my blood running hot at that question and at the arrogant way she asked it. What the hell did it matter?

Before any of the other two could answer, James had taken a step forwards so that he was right in front of my mother and stared boldly up at her. "Bloodtraitor. And proud of it." He held her gaze unabashedly, looking straight back at her. At that moment, I felt a huge surge of pride for my friend… and pride to be friends with him. He really was brave. And right at that moment, I remembered what he had said in Hagrid's cabin about people remembering us and repeating our names in awe after we would have left Hogwarts… and I could see people talking about James that way in the future. I could see him becoming one of those heroes that remained alive in people's memory even centuries and millennia after their deaths.

My mother seemed to be struck speechless for a moment, well, that was certainly a first. Then she whirled around and glared at me. "Classy friends you've chosen there."

"Indeed they are. They are the best." I gave James, Remus and Peter a broad smile, all three of them replying in kind.

"Don't you dare show your face before the end of school year. You are not welcome at home for Christmas break, so don't bother leaving Hogwarts."

"Don't worry, I wasn't planning to. Goodbye, mother!" I was really proud of the way I had delivered that statement, just as cool, poised and indifferent as I had planned for it to come out. The look in her eyes told me that she was itching to slap me again, but obviously she didn't dare to in front of Professor McGonagall and Professor Dumbledore. Without another word, she whirled around, making her robes fly around her in a swirl of black and strode down the staircase. I watched until she disappeared from my sight and then finally let out a long breath, finally relaxing.

"What happened to your cheek?" I glanced at Remus and gave him a weak smile. "It's nothing. Just my mother's way of telling me she loves me." I laughed sarcastically and shook my head.

"You should go up to your dormitory now. It's getting late." Professor McGonagall gave me a smile and patted my shoulder briefly, as she passed me, making her way down the staircase.

"And don't linger or I will have to give you detention." The stern teacher had replaced the roaring momma bear. But I was onto her. She was not nearly as strict as she tried to make the world believe.

"Of course, professor. Anything for you", I yelled after her, earning myself a dark look, making me chuckle, a sound that was echoed by the person right beside me. As I turned my head, my eyes fell upon Professor Dumbledore.

"She is right, though, you really should get back to Gryffindor tower. Give Vladimir to me, Mr Potter, I will take him to Hagrid's, I was planning to pay him a visit anyway." He accompanied us for a bit with the niffler docile in his arms. As we told him goodnight at the next corner and strode away, he held me back for a moment, smiling down at me. "For the record, I don't believe you have been sorted into Gryffindor by accident. You have proven quite a few times over the course of the last days that you possess exceptional bravery and stealth for a boy your age. Not many people manage to impress me, Sirius and even less manage to surprise me. You managed to do both in just a couple of days."


	8. Chapter 8 The Full Moon

Remus:

Our first two weeks at Hogwarts had passed so quickly it seemed almost unreal. By the second week, a certain routine was starting to set in, nevertheless the novelty of it all never really seemed to wear of. There were new surprises lurking everywhere, like the famous Peeves finally turning up one morning, thoroughly disgruntled and doing his best to torment the students by throwing ink bottles- and in general everything he got his hands on- at them with the caretaker Argus Filch shouting his head off at him for getting ink all over the walls and floor. As Nick told us later, it appeared the Bloody Baron had locked Peeves into one of the chambers of the North Tower for two weeks as a punishment and had only just released him. Well, Peeves was certainly …something. Sirius and James had been delighted by his appearance, especially after Peeves had emptied an inkbottle all over Severus Snape's head, making him squeal like a little girl. The two of them had still been laughing at the expression on Severus' face all through dinner, casting evil grins in the direction of the Slytherin table, where Severus was scowling at his food, carefully not looking at anyone.

I for one, could still hardly believe that I really was at Hogwarts and that all of his was real, but apart from that, I had settled in pretty well. I liked all of the classes and had a good feeling about most of them, especially Charms and Transfiguration. Potions would be a little more difficult but fortunately, I was partnered with Sirius there, who was really good at potions. The teachers all seemed to be quite all right, as well. I was especially fond of Professor McGonagall, Professor Flitwick and Professor Sprout. Whereas Professor McGonagall was stern, she was also very just and besides, Sirius had told us all about how she had stood up for him after his mother had hit him, so I couldn't help but like and admire her. Professor Flitwick was very funny and his lessons had so far all been quite entertaining… helped quite a lot by James and Sirius' antics. And Professor Sprout… well, she was quite direct and said things how she saw them, but that was mostly not such a bad thing. Besides, not one them seemed to care about me being a werewolf, treating me just like any other student. Unfortunately, I couldn't say that about the other teachers. Whereas the Professor Slughorn still seemed both apprehensive and curious at the same time, the Astronomy teacher Professor Friggs and the Defence against the Dark Arts teacher Professor O'Neill seemed to consider my condition really interesting and I had caught them looking at me like I was a science experiment. Suffice it to say… I did not much appreciate people gawking at me like I was a scientific curiosity, especially since I wanted nothing more than to forget about being a werewolf until the next full moon and just be a normal kid, hanging out with his friends and enjoying his time at Hogwarts. Was that too much to ask for?

But as the next full moon came closer, it became absolutely impossible not to think about my condition. What would my transformations be like at Hogwarts? Dumbledore had told me that he had taken the necessary precautions… well, just what did those look like? At home, my dad had used to lock me into a shed a little way away from our house, putting charms on it to make it impossible for me to leave it or actually tear it apart.

And just how would I be able to conceal my condition from my friends. They were bound to notice me not being in my bed. As these thoughts kept tormenting me and keeping me up at night, I grew more and more nervous… and yes, moody.

The day before my transformation, the usual headache had started to set in when I woke up in the morning and I felt distinctly dizzy when I sat up, cradling my head in my hands for a moment. Wincing at the usual sound of Sirius singing loudly… and falsely in the shower, I scowled at the bathroom door. That was his usual method of waking us up, a daily routine he had devised to torment us.

As he was trying to hit a particularly loud note, creating a sound like a chalk being dragged over a blackboard, I couldn't take it anymore. "WILL YOU KEEP IT DOWN?" James, who had just gotten up and who had been scowling at the bathroom as well, actually dropped the shirt he had been holding and whirled around to stare at me, startled. A sudden stop in Peter's snoring told us that my shout had actually managed to do the impossible and woken our sleepyhead up as well. Sure enough, he opened his drapes to stare at me with his eyes still all droopy a moment later.

"You all right there, Remus?" James' voice sounded unsure as he was watching me cautiously. "I didn't think you actually had another volume than calm and soft-spoken." My only answer was a grunt, as I flopped back down on my bed, one arm across my eyes. Yeah, the light did not do my headache any good.

I heard the bathroom door opening and then Sirius' voice. "Did I just hear Remus shouting? Like… really shouting?" He sounded incredulous as well.

"You did. Are you sure you are all right, Re?" I sighed at James' question, turning my head gingerly to look at the three of them all staring at me with a mixture of apprehension and concern.

"I'm fine, I just have a bit of a headache. Sorry for yelling at you, Sirius, but your singing … Let's just say it does not combine very well with a headache, so if you could take a break, I would be very very grateful." I closed my eyes again, placing my arm over my eyes again.

Somebody sat down next to me, pulling my arm away. "Do you need to go to the hospital wing? You look pale." Sirius' voice really did sound concerned, which actually managed to me smile at him.

"No, it's not that bad. I'm used to it." I tried to sit up, wincing at the new wave of dizziness washing over me.

"Are you sure you don't want to go the hospital wing, Remus? You don't look good." Peter and James had joined us as well, both looking worried.

"Absolutely. I just need some breakfast and fresh air and I'll be as good as new." I tried to give them a reassuring smile, as I made my way over towards the bathroom. After I had closed the door behind me, I leaned against the bathroom sink with shaking arms, fighting the waves of dizziness and nausea coursing over me. As it finally subsided, I glanced up into the mirror, cringing at my pale face and the dark rings beneath my eyes. Yep, I could understand their concern now. Great, this promised to be a particularly nasty transformation. Just great.

I could the other sneaking me concerned looks all through breakfast and during classes, as did some of the teachers who of course knew just fine what was going on with me, giving me looks of pity, which managed to make nauseous again. I didn't want their pity. I didn't want anyone's pity. I just wanted to be normal! Like everyone else!

Due to the combination of the pitying looks and the pounding headache, I was growing crabbier and crabbier, actually snapping at James when he kept asking me how I was every five minutes during Herbology. The looks he exchanged with Peter and Sirius at the table next to us did not go unnoticed by me and I felt terrible for being so harsh with him, when he was worried about me.

Deciding to forsake dinner since I was not hungry anyone and had barely been able to at both breakfast and lunch, I told the others to go on without me and went to lie down in the dormitory, pulling the blankets over my head, revelling in the silence of the empty dormitory.

I was unable to sleep though, thoughts of what was to come in only a bit more than twenty-four hours racing through my head, making my stomach clench and my headache grow even worse.

A sudden knock on the door made me wince, as it reverberated in my head. "Come in." I was not really sure whether whoever was outside was actually able to hear my voice through the blanket but the door opened nevertheless.

" ?" Professor McGonagall's voice, much softer than usual, emanated through the blanket and I could feel her sitting down on the edge of my bed. Sighing, I pulled the blanket down a bit so I could look at her. She gave me a bit of a smile, holding a cup out towards me.

"I've brought you something from the hospital wing. I noticed you looking quite peaky in class and talked to Madam Pomfrey, our nurse. Drink this, it should help a bit with the headache." With a murmur of thanks, I took the drink and gulped the foul smelling liquid down with my face scrunched up. Professor McGonagall took the cup from my hands again, I dropped down onto the bed once more. "It will take a few minutes but you should feel a bit better than." Feeling her eyes on me, I looked up at her. The expression on her face reminded me of my friends, she looked just as concerned as them and there was the hint of pity I hated so much as well. "Is there anything I can do, Mr Lupin?"

"Yes. Stop pitying me." I winced. I had not meant to say that aloud. "I'm sorry, Professor, I…-" She cut me off with wave of her hand. "It's quite all right, Mr Lupin. I'm sorry, I can understand your sentiment. There's nothing worse than people pitying you as it doesn't help you one bit." I nodded, remaining silent.

"Professor Dumbledore wanted me to tell you about how we are going to handle tomorrow night. I need you to meet Madam Pomfrey at the hospital wing tomorrow at four o'clock. She will take you down to a shed, where you will spend the night. Don't worry, it's safe, Professor Dumbledore has ensured that. Neither you, nor anyone else will be in danger." I nodded.

"We've also thought of a cover story for why you will have to spend the night away from the castle. We thought you could tell your friends that you received the message that your mother has fallen ill and that you are going to visit her. This is a story we can use more often."

"Fine with me." True to Professor McGonagall's word, the headache really was getting a bit better but I still felt horrible.

"Remus. Is there anything else I can do?" I met her eyes, trying to give her a smile and shook my head. "Thank you very much, professor but I'm fine. I will be fine. It's not like it's the first time."

With a sigh, she reached out and brushed the hair away from my forehead in a surprisingly tender gesture. "Don't worry about anything other than you getting safely down to the hospital wing at four o'clock tomorrow, all right? We'll handle everything else. It'll be over soon."

"Until the next full moon." That came out a lot bitterer than I had meant and when I glanced at Professor McGonagall, I thought to have seen tears sparkling in her eyes for a moment. But it must have been the light. Tough, stern Professor McGonagall did not seem one to cry easily.

She seemed to want to add something but there were steps and a commotion to be heard downstairs. "Looks like your friends are finished with dinner. I saw them sneaking bits of food into their bags, they must be worried you're going to starve." I smiled a little at that, feeling a wave of affection for my friends.

Professor McGonagall looked at me once again, smiling and got up. "I'll see you in class tomorrow". As she turned to leave, she brushed her hand tenderly against my shoulder and whispered so silently that I almost didn't hear what she was saying "Be brave, my boy."

As the door swung open and James, Sirius and Peter filed in, stopping in their tracks as they saw Professor McGonagall. Instantly, guilty looks appeared on their faces, probably because of the food they had snuck away from the table.

Our teacher just winked at them, though. "Make sure he eats something. Good night, everyone."

"What was McGonagall doing here?" James glanced after her curiously.

"She noticed I was not at dinner and came to check on me with some medicine from the hospital wing." I gave them a brief smile, which seemed to encourage them that it was safe to talk to me. Sirius jumped onto my bed next to me and looked down at me. "Will you bite our heads off if we ask you how you are?" I shook my head sheepishly. "I'm sorry, guys. I guess I get crabby when I'm not feeling well."

"Crabby is putting it nicely." James joined us with a grin, scooting over to make enough space for Peter to sit with us as well.

"Are you hungry? We have brought something along for you." Peter opened his bag and held a couple of napkins filled with food out towards me. "We weren't really sure what to bring so we just took a bit of bread and cheese and a few slices of the chocolate cake you love so much." Once again, I felt my heart constricting. They were so sweet, all three of them.

"Thank you guys. You really are the best." I reached out to take a slice of chocolate cake, biting into it and instantly feeling the reassuring taste of the chocolate and the warmth filling my body again. My father always used to give me chocolate after my transformations and they always helped a bit.

They watched me munching on the cake for a few minutes, seemingly reassured that I was eating. "Are you feeling any better?" I gave James a brief nod. "A bit, yes. I received a note yesterday, that my mother has fallen ill. I was up all night worrying about her, I guess that's why I was feeling so rotten today. But Professor McGonagall has just given me permission to visit her tomorrow evening, so… I guess I feel a bit better."

"What's wrong with your mum?" I smiled at the worry in Peter's voice.

"I'm not sure, to be honest. I guess I'll find out tomorrow. Thank you so much for the food, guys. I'll try to sleep for a bit, now." They nodded and got off my bed, Sirius actually going so far as to puff up my pillow and pull my blankets over me, causing my heart to swell at his obvious concern.

They got into bed as well after a bit and, as usual, Peter's soft snores and James' deep breathing filled the room after a few minutes. I on the other hand, was unable to fall asleep once again. My whole body was aching and as a matter of fact, I was tired, but incredibly agitated at the same time. I felt sort of like a live wire, thoughts racing through my head. After about an hour of this, I finally surrendered, got up and snuck out of the window to my hiding place again.

It was a bit cold outside but once again, surprisingly for the Scottish Highlands, there were barely any clouds obscuring the stars. Hesitant, I raised my eyes to look for the moon. It was almost full now.

A sudden sound made me jump and tear my eyes away from the moon, to find Sirius beside me again, sitting down next to me and pulling a blanket over both of us. He didn't say anything, just stared at the sky as well. My eyes once again found the moon. It was beautiful. I could not deny that. And I knew it was absolutely ridiculous but I could feel tears burning in my eyes at its sight. If it were not for the full moon, I would not transform into a werewolf every month. It was silly and childish to blame the moon for this… but right now, I could not help myself. Not with the thought of the next night, of my next transformation burning in my mind.

Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath, I tried to force back the tears, which were threating to escape. I could not cry, I would not cry. The moon might make me turn into a monster every month, but it would manage to make me cry. McGonagall's words were still fresh in my mind "Be brave".

"Do you see that constellation of stars over there?" Sirius' quiet voice made me jump and I looked in the direction his hand was pointing. "That's Andromeda, my cousin was named after her. Do you know Greek mythology?" I shook my head.

"Not well, no."

"Andromeda was the daughter of Kepheus and Kassiopeia. As her mother was very conceited, believing herself and her daughter the most beautiful creatures in the world, the sea god Poseidon sent a monster and a flood to punish them. In order to get rid of them again, her parents had to sacrifice Andromeda, giving her to the monster. But when all seemed to be lost, she was saved by Perseus. He defeated the monster and married Andromeda. One of the few mythological stories that actually have a happy ending."

"They are unrealistic, happy endings are." My voice was quiet and bitter.

Sirius nodded and met my eyes for the first time since he had joined me. "I know. But that doesn't mean I don't believe in them, hoping to get a happy ending of my own one day."

I simply looked at him, at the earnest expression in his eyes. "I hope you'll get your happy ending, Sirius. I really do."

"What about you?"

I huffed a bitter laugh. "I wish I could believe in happy endings, but I don't. At least not for me."

Sirius was quiet for a moment, staring up at Andromeda. "Do you ever feel like we are way too old for our age? Like… our brains don't really work like the average eleven year old?"

I nodded. "I know what you mean. And yes, I do. I guess it just depends on your story. Some of us have to grow up faster than others, I guess."

"Are you ever going to tell me what it is that is haunting you?" I remained quiet, my eyes once again finding the moon. Then I let out a long sigh and let my head drop against Sirius' shoulder. He seemed startled for just a moment, but then leaned his head against mine.

"Maybe one day I will."

The next day was if possible even worse. I was extremely jumpy and moody, my body and head aching like hell. I had no idea how I managed to suffer through classes, barely remembering anything we had covered. Thankfully, the others blamed my story of my mother's illness for my condition and left me alone most of the time.

As I told them goodbye at half past three in the afternoon, they all hugged me and assured me that everything was going to be all right and that they were sure my mother would be better soon. I felt even worse for lying to them after that.

The walk to the hospital wing was a kind of daze, I dreaded what was to come. The matron, Madam Pomfrey looked up as I entered the hospital wing and immediately hurried towards me.

"Remus Lupin?" I nodded.

"Hello, dear, I'm Madam Pomfrey, the school matron. I'm to take you down to your sanctuary for the night. Follow me please." She hurried ahead, checking to see that no one was in the corridor as I followed her. Sanctuary… prison would be more like it.

I didn't pay much attention to my surroundings, simply following Madam Pomfrey, only dimly registering as we left the school and hurried over the grounds. We finally stopped some ways away from the school in front of a tree whose branches were swaying viciously.

"Careful, Remus. Have you heard of a Whomping Willow before? This tree will begin slashing about with its branches as soon as it feels the lightest touch, so be careful." She grabbed a branch and lightly touched the trees trunk, which stopped its movement immediately. Now that the tree had stopped moving, a tunnel appeared. Madam Pomfrey pointed at it. "Get in please. This is where I leave you. Please go to the end of this tunnel. There you will find a shack where you will take refuge tonight. Don't worry about anything, you will be safe there, as will everyone else. I will come get you in the morning." She gave me smile and squeezed my shoulder reassuringly, motioning me forward.

I gave her a weak smile and a whispered thank you in answer and then entered the tunnel, hearing the branches starting to move behind me again. I followed the tunnel for what felt like quite a time, probably twenty minutes at least as I was moving slowly and carefully, the pain I was feeling increasing by the minute.

Finally, I saw a dim light ahead and true to Madam Pomfrey's word, I saw the inside of what seemed like an old house or rather a shack in front of me, dim, grey and cold looking. As I was not in much of a mood to explore, I simply walked up the stairs, seeing a room, which looked pretty much like a bedroom and decided to sit down and wait there. It should not be long now. I could feel it.

This was the almost the worst part. The waiting. Knowing what was going to happen and not being able to do a thing about it. Just having to sit and wait there for the inevitable to happen. I closed my eyes, trying to take a deep breath. To think of my friends, who would probably going down to dinner right about now. I could practically hear them, Sirius' and James loud and careless laughter and Peter's shy little huffing.

Feeling a sharp stinging, I felt my heart constricting. It was starting. The moon was rising. Any moment now. Don't cry. Be strong. Be brave. Be strong. Be brave.

The dark walls around me seemed to be closing in on me, my breath coming in sharp little puffs. I had to be brave. I had to be strong. There was nothing I could do! All I could do was wait … just wait.

The aching in my bones intensified, making me wince. Yet, I was aware that his was nothing. It was only the beginning. What was to be coming was much much worse.

I could only hope that Dumbledore was right in thinking that he had done everything possible to ensure everyone else's safety.

The pain grew steadily worse, making me gasp out and throw my head back, my eyes closed tightly. It was not only in my bones anymore, it was everywhere. My thoughts were racing, growing more blurred by the second. Everything was blurring around me, the only thing I registered anymore was the pain… the pain. Pain… everywhere…. all of me, contorted in pain. Stinging, burning, tearing me apart. I was fighting it… even though I knew I was bound to lose this fight… like every single month. "Be strong, be brave. Be strong, be brave." I was chanting these words to myself, as I was clutching my sides with my arms, feeling my nails digging into my flesh. I had to be strong, had to be brave.

As another wave of pain coursed over me, contorting my body, I couldn't help it anymore, throwing my head back and letting out a cry of desperation and pain, which echoed through the shack and turned into a howl towards the end.

"I hate myself. Dumbledore was wrong, I am a monster." This was the last conscious thought before I descended into darkness. The last conscious thought as the boy I was most of the time, as the monster in me finally took over again.


	9. Chapter 9 Just A Boy

Blurry shapes… somebody saying something that sounded like my name…but I couldn't be sure… I couldn't tell… Everything was so blurred, only shapes moving in the darkness…

Everything hurt. Every single part of me. Even lifting my eyelids seemed too hard.

For a moment I had no idea who I was. Or where I was. Then suddenly, everything started to come back to me. Trying to open my eyes, I squinted at the sudden light, wincing as a sharp pain shot through my head.

"He's awake. Poppy, he's awake!" I knew that voice… Professor McGonagall.

Indeed, after my eyes had finally adjusted to the light and I could see clearly again, I saw my teacher's face above me, her eyes slightly red and glittering.

"Remus. Remus, can you hear me?" I tried to answer but as I opened my mouth, not a single sound came out. My throat felt parched, completely dried out. Professor McGonagall seemed to have understood, as her face disappeared for a moment and then she held out a glass of water. As I tried to reach up to take it, another sharp stab of pain echoed through my body, and I winced again.

"Let me help you sit up." Madam Pomfrey had joined us as well, gently gliding a hand behind my back and pushing me into a sitting position. Professor McGonagall helped me drink a few sips while Madam Pomfrey was gently rubbing my back.

"How are you feeling, Remus?"

This time, words actually came out. "Don't ask. Did I hurt anyone?" My voice sounded raspy and weak but at least I could speak again. "No. Like I told you, you are perfectly safe in the shack, as is everyone else. So don't worry about that."

"Do I look as terrible as I feel?" I could see them exchanging a quick glance and sighed. "No need to answer that."

"You scratched yourself pretty badly, Remus. I've patched you up as best as I could, though. You should be all right. It must have been a very bad transformation, you've been unconscious for almost half a day." I didn't say anything, just looked up at Professor McGonagall, who was clutching my hand, clearly fighting tears. Squeezing her hand gingerly, I tried to give her as much of a convincing smile as I was able to. "Don't worry about me, professor. I'll be fine."

She squeezed back, hastily turning her face away but I could hear her sniffling. I truly must present a terrible sight to behold if it actually managed to make Professor McGonagall cry.

"When can I leave?" My eyes found Madam Pomfrey again. She pursed her lips, letting her eyes roam over me. "You will definitely need to stay the night. Maybe tomorrow morning, if you are feeling better, but under no account are you to go to class."

"But I need to go to class!" Professor McGonagall turned her head to look at me again.

"Don't worry, Remus. I saw Mr Black taking notes in class today and since he normally spends his time messing about with Mr Potter and Mr Pettigrew instead of jotting down my words, I'm guessing he did it for your sake. And if you are still missing any information, you can come straight to us teachers and we will help you out, making sure your condition does not pose any more of a disadvantage to you in regard to your academics. But now, you really need to rest." With that she got up, patting my shoulder.

"I have another class in a couple of minutes, but I will check on you later. I'll tell your friends that you will be spending another night at home." I nodded, thanking her and then closed my eyes again for a while, the sound of Madam Pomfrey bustling around oddly comforting.

The next time I woke up, the first thing I saw was that the small table next to my bed was laden with things. Surprised, I tried to sit up, wincing at the pain, even though it did not seem to be as bad as this afternoon. "A few of your teachers have decided to send their versions of a get well soon card." Startled, I whipped my head around, groaning at the stab of pain and at my own stupidity for moving so quickly despite my injuries. Dumbledore was sitting on a comfortable looking armchair next to me, giving me a warm smile. "Professor Dumbledore." I gave him a respectful nod and a smile of my own.

"How are you, my boy?" I shrugged.

"I'm not sure. I still feel like I have been on the losing end of a battle but the pain is not as bad as the last time when I woke up." Curious, I stretched my hand out to grab the basket of things on my table, browsing through them. Despite myself, I could feel my lips pulling into a bit of a smile as the card Professor Flitwick had sent me emitted a shower of colourful sparks when opened. He had attached a pack of Chocolate Frogs. Professor McGonagall had sent me some Ginger Newts and a book with a note saying "If you get bored, this might interest you. You may keep it as long as you like, just return it whenever you are finished with it." The book did look interesting; it was called A History of Hogwarts. Professor Slughorn had sent me some crystallized pineapple, telling me it was his favourite and that he was sure it would make me feel better. The other teachers had all chosen some chocolate and a get-well card.

"That's really nice of them, they didn't have to." I looked up at Dumbledore, feeling a bit more cheerful at my teacher's thoughtfulness.

"Well, they wanted to. And you didn't think,I'd forget you, did you, my boy? Here you go." With a smile Dumbledore placed some Chocolate Frogs into my hand and then looked at me closely. "How are you really, Remus? From what I gathered, last night must have been pretty bad."

I didn't meet his eyes as I shrugged and murmured "Well, it was one of the worst transformations I've had so far, that's true. But I'll be all right." Dumbledore nodded. "Yes, that you will be. You're strong, Remus Lupin. Far stronger than you know yourself."

I didn't reply, just stared at the chocolate in my lap.

"What is it?" Dumbledore's bright blue eyes were fixed intently on me.

"Nothing." My voice sounded unconvincing to my own ears.

"Remus. Remus, look at me." As I reluctantly raised my eyes to meet his, they were serious and filled with sincerity. "You are no monster. I've already told you this once and I can only repeat it. You are no monster."

"But I am." My voice was barely a whisper, breaking midway through my sentence. Without looking at Dumbledore, I laid back down and turned my back to him, trying to hide my face.

"You are not. Do not let your transformations discourage you. You've settled in so well at Hogwarts and have made some friends already as I have seen."

"They would not be friends with me if they knew what I was. They wouldn't come near me if they knew the truth."

"Do not let what other people think of you dictate your life, my boy. It's only important what you think of yourself."

"Well, I think I am a monster." Silence followed. I had almost started to believe that Dumbledore had given up and would let this particular discussion rest when I heard him getting up and he came around the bed, so he could look at me again. Reluctantly, I met his eyes. He held his hand out towards me, with a tiny mirror in it.

"Would you do me a favour and take a look in this mirror, Remus?" Raising my eyebrows, I slowly grabbed the mirror and glanced into it, grimacing as I saw my pale, clammy face and the dark rings beneath my eyes. I really did look terrible.

"Would you tell me what you see?" Puzzled, I looked up at the headmaster.

"I see… me?" Dumbledore smiled. "Yes, but what exactly do you see?" Suddenly, I understood where he was going with this.

"Professor Dumbledore,…" He cut me off with a wave of his hand, stepping next to me and looking into the mirror as well.

"Because all I see … is a boy. All I see is Remus Lupin." With a smile, he gave me a pat on the shoulder and turned around to exit the hospital wing. "Try to go back to sleep now. I hope you'll feel better in the morning. And think about what I just told you, my boy. Goodnight." With that the door closed behind him.

I stared after him for a moment and then shifted my eyes back to the mirror, staring at my own reflection.

"You understand what he was trying to tell you, don't you? Even if you don't want to believe it?" Professor McGonagall's voice startled me enough to drop the mirror. Fortunately, it landed on the blankets of the hospital bed instead of the floor. McGonagall was standing at the backdoor of the hospital wing, looking at me with a serious expression on her face.

As she stepped closer and settled down onto the armchair Dumbledore had deserted, I picked the mirror up and settled it on the desk.

"I think so. But that doesn't mean that I believe him."

"I do." I gave her a surprised look. She leaned forwards, her eyes on mine.

"I believe him because I only see the boy as well. I am aware of the fact that this boy turns into a werewolf every month but still… he's only a boy. A boy who is leading a much harder life than should be afflicted upon anybody. A boy that is acting much older than his age most of the time. A boy, who has to carry a burden no one should ever have to carry. I am aware that some of my colleagues might look at you differently because of your condition …" she gave a disgusted snort.

"They look at me like I'm a science experiment… or a time bomb." My voice was bitter as I tugged at the ends of my blanket.

"I know, Remus. I do not think they mean to slight you but most of us have never been so close to a werewolf before. And it is true that the reputation of werewolves is rather gruesome, but it is the same with werewolves as is with wizards. There are always some who go bad and who taint the reputation of all the others. So please, forgive my colleagues. I expect they will stop this after some time, after they get to know you. But, Remus, I want you to know that when I look at you, I don't see the werewolf. Just like Dumbledore, I only see you. Remus Lupin. And I hope that one day; you will be able to do the same."


	10. Chapter 10 Pranks

Sirius

We were all happy to see Remus return after his absence for two days, in a much better mood and with the news that his mother was better. Still… I couldn't help but notice that he didn't look to good himself, pale and worn, the shadows underneath his eyes even darker than before. But as he was back to his sweet friendly self instead of moody and a snappy, I decided to let it go. He probably had just been really worried about his mum. I had seen how close they were on the train.

He had been genuinely happy about the fact that we had been taking notes for him during the lessons, immediately settling down on his bed to try and catch up as quickly as he could. We offered to help him but as it turns out, Remus was quite brainy and managed to figure most of it on his own just fine.

Time seemed to pass much quicker at Hogwarts. September turned into October and with every passing week, I could feel myself growing more and more impatient, anticipating the 31st of October. Andie had told me about the annual Halloween Feast at Hogwarts, saying that it really was something to behold. Unfortunately, she had refused to offer any details about it, saying that would spoil the surprise. Talking about Andie… other than the rest of my family, she did not seem to have a problem with me being in Gryffindor at all. Whenever I met her in the hall, she would stay to talk to us and at times, she even came to sit with us at the Gryffindor table for a minute or two, joking around with James and discussing classes with Remus. Narcissa and Bellatrix were a completely different story, though. They mostly either gave me dirty looks and sneers or just acted like they didn't know me at all. Suffice it to say, I had no problem whatsoever with the second option.

But right now, the Halloween Feast was in the foremost of my mind. I had heard about the celebrations that usually came with Halloween, of course my family had never participated in such non-sense, why something like that was beneath the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black, and I was curious.

Therefore, whenever I didn't have anything better to do like during a History of Magic, my thoughts strayed to the feast ahead. I generally didn't mind any of my classes, except for a History of Magic, which just had to be the most boring class EVER in both wizard and human history. The teacher, Professor Binns, was a ghost… and a very boring one at that. Whoever had said that all ghosts were terrifying clearly had never met Binns. He was about as terrifying as blind new-born kitten and as boring as a smelly old shoe-brush. The most exciting thing by far about his class, was his entrance through the blackboard, and even that had only managed to catch our attention for the first three times. For the rest of the lesson, he kept floating in front of the class, droning on about Goblin rebellions and stuff in a voice, which could only be described as monotonous and emotionless. I really had tried to take notes during the very first lesson, but had had to give up after about half an hours, as my thoughts kept drifting away to other things. My notes had been pitiful, mostly consisting of half-finished sentences, or random words. James and Peter had followed my example, Peter was actually sleeping through this class mostly, only waking up when Remus shook him awake at the end of each class. Binns hadn't noticed once, despite the sound of Peter's snoring. Whereas Remus was, incomprehensibly to the rest of us, still valiantly taking notes every lesson, James and I had taken to either staring blearily around the classroom and letting our thoughts drift, or playing hangman on a piece of paper.

Today was no exception to that rule. James and I had spent the first part of the lesson playing hangman, whereas Remus scribbled down his notes and shot either the two of us or the snoring Peter next to him a dirty look every few minutes, but even that had gotten boring after a time. So now, I was thinking about the Halloween Feast whereas James next to me had settled his head on his arms, on the verge of sleep as well.

Suddenly an idea hit me. Giving James a sharp jab into the side with my elbow, probably a bit harder than I had meant to, since he yelped with pain and turned to glare at me, I grinned at him excitedly.

"What the hell?"

"Sorry but I have just had the most brilliant idea ever." James raised his eyebrows, trying to maintain his annoyed expression but I did not miss the flash of interest in his eyes. "You know, it's the 31st of October in a few weeks… and as you know the 31st of October is-"

"Halloween, yes, I know. I'm not an imbecile. What's your point?"

"Well, Andie told me the school will hold a big feast. Like really big."

James nodded. "Yeah, I know my dad told me. I repeat: What's your point?"

I opened my mouth to reply when something hit straight in the face. Startled, I looked down at the folded note that had just fallen onto our table with James' and my name scrawled across it in Remus' handwriting. Casting a curious look in his direction, I saw that he was bent over his notes again, apparently trying to jot down Professor Binn's every word.

 _Could you idiots be any louder. If you haven't noticed, we're in class, so save it for later. As if it's not hard enough to concentrate with Peter's snoring next to me. So cut it out!_

James' snort told me he had been reading the note over my shoulder. We exchanged a quick grin, James pulling the note towards him and scratching something down with his quill before throwing it at Remus, managing to hit him in the ear. Once again, he was glaring daggers at us as he was opening the note. As his eyes briefly skimmed over it, a hint of a grin appeared on his face and he rolled his eyes.

"What did you write?"

"You'll see in a minute." James grinned at me, waiting for Remus to finish his reply and toss the note onto our desk. James opened it and huffed a laugh. I snatched it out of his end and read through it.

 _Don't be such a goody goody, Remus. Besides, Sirius has had an idea._

 _All right, then I guess you can do without the goody goody's notes as of now. And … oh no!_

What do you mean 'oh no'? I exchanged a look of mock outrage with James, who was grinning broadly. As I tossed the note onto Remus' table again, he sighed and laid his pen down resignedly.

 _Oh no as in please don't get us into trouble._

Can't promise that, trouble is my middle name _._ _Do you want to hear my idea or not?_

 _How about you tell us after class? I'm actually trying to take notes here. In case you haven't noticed._

 _I agree. Let Remus take his notes in peace and then we'll talk it over later._

 _Forget it, James. You're not getting the goody goody's notes this time._

 _Oh, c'mon, Remus. You know I didn't mean it._

 _Nope._

 _Please?_

 _What about me? I'm still getting your notes, am I?_

 _Nope._

 _Why? I didn't insult you! It was that idiot sitting next to me._

 _Watch who you're calling an idiot!_

 _How about you try and pay attention yourselves? And besides, I won't have any notes if you don't stop bothering me._

 _We did try! It was frankly impossible._

 _Then how am I managing to do it?_

 _Beats us!_

At that point Remus set the note on fire with his wand without giving us another look and started to take notes again, a satisfied little smile on his lips at our annoyed grunts.

"All right, Sirius. What's this fabulous idea of yours?" Remus' voice was dripping with sarcasm as he closed the door to our dormitory behind him. James, Peter and I were already sprawled across our respective beds.

I hastily propped myself up onto my elbows and glanced at each of my friends in turn to ensure that I had their undivided attention. Whereas both James and Peter looked curious and in James' case slightly amused, Remus tried to feign indifference … unsuccessfully.

"Is that a glint of interest I see there in your eyes, Remus dear?"

He rolled his eyes and chucked a pillow at me. "Just spit it out before you choke on it."

Grinning, I grabbed the pillow and threw it back at him. "All right… so here it comes… How about we give the Halloween Feast a bit of a… let's call it personal touch?" I raised my eyebrows and looked at them excitedly, waiting for a reaction.

"Personal touch? Like… what?" Peter definitely looked intrigued, as he imitated me and settled himself onto his elbows.

"Like a prank or anything. To start of our career as the official new Hogwarts troublemakers." I grinned, flicking my hair back at these words with a flourish. Remus shook his head, trying to hide a grin and exchanged an amused glance with James. The latter then shrugged and turned back towards me.

"Well, sounds like a plan. Count me in. Remus, Peter? What do you think?"

"Sounds like fun." Peter nodded enthusiastically but then scrunched his face up a bit. "But we won't get into trouble, right?"

"Nah!" James winked at Peter. "Don't worry, Petey. We'll be fine. So, do you already have any specific ideas as to what that prank could look like?"

I bit down onto my bottom lip and shrugged. "Not really, no. But we'll come up with something together, right? Remus… didn't you title yourself the new mastermind for our pranks?"

"That depends. Are you going to get me expelled?" I was not really sure whether he was joking or not, it was hard to tell with Remus sometimes. Especially as he had stopped looking at me and had his eyes firmly locked onto the book in front of him.

"Of course not!"

Remus put down his book and looked up at us again. "All right. Then how about we try to find out as much as possible about this Halloween Feast first? That way we'll know what we are dealing with and it might actually inspire us. Or do any of you already what to expect?"

Peter shook his head. I sighed and replied in kind. "Andie refused to tell me any details, just claiming that it would be great."

"Same here. My mum and dad were always going on and on about the Hogwarts Feasts but they never told me any specifics." James scowled, picking on a loose thread on his blanket.

"Ok, then step one: try to find out as much as possible." Remus turned a page on his book, once again focused on his homework.

"And how exactly do we do that?" Sighing, he clapped the book shut and pulled himself into a sitting position.

"How are the chances of you getting any more information out of Andie, Sirius?"

"Slim to none." I shook my head, knowing full well how stubborn my cousin could get. She was very much like me in that respect.

"Ok… I'm guessing asking the teachers is out, too. How about Hagrid?" I glanced at James, who had raised his eyebrows and gave Remus an impressed look.

"Good idea!"

"You sound surprised. Not so much of a goody goody, am I now?"

James grinned. "Oh, no. You're still a goody goody but we love you." He hastily ducked as Remus' pillow flew in his direction.

"So, it's a plan then?" I glanced around at all three of them, with an expectant smile. James gave me a thumbs-up and a broad grin; Peter nodded and Remus just raised his eyebrows and murmured "Duh."


	11. Chapter 11 The Invisibility Cloak

Remus:

We had had no chance to ask Hagrid about the Halloween Feast at dinner, since he had not been there, for whatever reason. Well, no matter. We would just try tomorrow afternoon instead and pay him a visit at his hut.

Just like most nights, I lay awake long after the others had fallen asleep. Or so I had thought. A slight shuffling noise made me raise onto my elbows and brush the drapes around my bed aside to see what was going on. Peering through the room which was almost entirely dark except for the feeble light provided by the moon, I saw James getting up and rummaging around in what looked like a bag on the floor next to his bed as quietly as possible, obviously careful not to wake any of us up. Then he got up, holding something in his arms and tip toed towards the door.

Curious, I swung my legs out of bed and followed him. As soon as I had closed the door to the dormitory behind me, I whisper shouted after him. "James?".

James, who had already reached the end of the staircase, whirled around with a sound of surprise. "Remus?" Raising a finger to his lips, he gestured in the direction of the Common Room, clearly wanting me to follow him. I nodded and caught up with him with a few quick steps. As soon as we had reached the Common Room, where the fire was still burning, casting the room into a dull flickering light, James turned to face me. "What are you doing up? Did I wake you?"

I shook my head. "Nope, couldn't sleep. What are you up to?"

James hesitated, biting down onto his bottom lip while his eyes rested on mine. He seemed to be thinking something over. Finally, he sighed and grabbed what looked like cloak, which he had been carrying under his arm and shook it out for me to see.

"Promise me you'll keep it a secret, all right? This was my Dad's. He gave it to me as a present on the day we took the Hogwarts Express. Watch!" Without further ado, he slung the cloak around his shoulders, glancing at me in order not to miss my reaction.

My mouth dropped open as James' body seemed to disappear into thin air, with just his head hovering in the air. "Oh my…. Wow! An invisibility cloak?!"

James grinned proudly at my obvious excitement. "Yes. And a really good one at that. It has been in the possession of my family for ages but still works just fine. Cool, right?"

I nodded enthusiastically.

"My dad told me that he used it mostly to sneak down to the Hogwarts kitchen whenever he felt hungry… but I thought I might use it to get some more information on the Feast. I couldn't sleep anyway, so I might just as well use the time. What do you think? Shall we try out my father's cloak and go investigate?"

Involuntarily my lips pulled into a smile. The reasonable student in my screamed for me to say no and go back to bed since I had classes in the morning, but the more reckless part of me just told his counterpart to stuff it. As it was, I would have been lying awake for hours to come anyway. James was right. Why not use the time effectively? Then an idea hit me.

James raised his eyebrows at the sight of my evil grin, looking at me expectantly.

"All right, I'm in. But there's something we have to do first."

It was a strange feeling to lurk beneath an Invisibility Cloak, fully aware of the fact that you could see everything… but nobody could see you. It felt good somehow… exciting, exhilarating and freeing. The cloak was really huge and covered the both of us easily, we even had to hold the fabric aloft in order to avoid falling over our own feet because of it.

James grinned conspiratorially at me as he slowly turned the doorknob to our dormitory, both of us creeping towards the bed in the far right corner of the room. I nearly stumbled over one of Peter's shoes but managed to stay upright, swallowing a curse. James, who was fighting very hard to suppress his laughter, looked he was constipated, which nearly set me off as well. Both of us exchanged a malicious look, covering our respective mouths with one hand to stifle our laughter and continued to make our way across the room.

Finally, we had reached our destination. With identical evil grins plastered across our faces and both already shaking with suppressed laughter, we looked down at Sirius, curled up in bed like a little baby. His breathing was deep and even and he looked so peaceful that I almost felt sorry for him. Almost.

"One… two…GO!" Simultaneously we launched ourselves onto the bed, my hand clamping firmly across Sirius' mouth who instantly jolted into a sitting position with wide panicked eyes and a shout, which, fortunately, my hand muffled successfully. He screamed again as he looked down onto my hand, which really did look creepy, apparently coming out of nowhere and just floating there in the air in front of whim, and tried to tear it away from his mouth with a mounting level of panic and confusion.

James, noticing that I was bound to lose this battle, took that as his cue to start tickling Sirius. "What the hell?!" Sirius' shout was still muffled by my hand but the words were still distinctly audible. If I didn't know better, I would say that the tough cheeky Sirius Black was only seconds away from wetting his pants.

This thought did it. I burst out into laughter, James joining in only a heartbeat later. Sirius froze, confusion replacing most of the panic. "James? Remus? What in the world…?" I pulled my hand away from his mouth, relishing at seeing him cringe away from it, while James pulled the cloak of off us. With impeccable timing, both of us shouted "Boo!" immediately as the cloak fell away to reveal the two of us, causing Sirius to shout out again. Hopefully, the rest of the house would be fast asleep or would just think somebody was having a nightmare.

"You GITS! How… Why… WHAT?" Sirius leaned against his pillow and pushed back his hair with one hand, obviously shaken. His eyes were still all wide and round as he gazed at us with a mixture of confusion and outrage, setting us off again.

"I told you I'd get you back for the very first morning here at Hogwarts. Remember?" I grinned at Sirius, whereas James was still chuckling heartily.

"What just happened?" The sleepy question uttered from somewhere behind us made all three of us whirl around and glance in the direction of Peter's bed. Indeed, there he was, barely visible in the darkness. "Who just shouted?"

"He actually woke up." James' voice sounded positively incredulous and as he looked at me, we descended into another fit of laughter.

"Yeah, yeah, very funny! Peter, for your information, this two gits decided to wake me up in the middle of the night with some stupid prank. Hence, I woke up, a hand floating in mid-air clamped on my mouth to prevent me from screaming, a hand which was connected to… nothing. There was nothing! But I could feel somebody lying on top of me, even though I couldn't see anything. Then, something started tickling me… Well, it was these two idiots but how on earth they managed to turn themselves invisible is beyond me….-" His voice trailed off as James raised the invisibility cloak in his hands and held it right in front of Sirius' face.

"Hang on… Lumos!" A blue light issuing from Sirius' wand lightened up our half of the room and he stared at the cloak with an expression of dawning comprehension. "Is that…?" His eyes raised to meet James', who was wearing a broad, proud grin on his face.

"An Invisibility Cloak, yes. A gift from my father, used to belong to him." Sirius' eyes travelled back down to the cloak in awe, his mouth gaping slightly open.

"Wait a moment… so when you wear this cloak, you turn invisible?" To our mounting surprise, Peter had actually left the sanctuary of his warm bed and crawled on top of Sirius' next to me and James.

James nodded, showing Peter the cloak. "Yes. I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd try it out. Remus caught me sneaking out, though and followed me. And well, then we came up with this amazing plan to scare the crap out of Sirius."

"And a fine job you did, too. Gits!" Sirius tried to glare at us but failed miserably as he burst into laughter, punching my shoulder playfully. "I'd expect nothing less from James, but you, Remus? Our goody goody goes rogue?"

"It was his idea, actually. I had suggested roaming the castle, looking for any hints as to what the Halloween Feast will look like, but Remus here stated that you would never look at us again if we went without you and that, as we had to wake you up anyway, we may just combine this with pranking you."

"Why, Remus, I do believe we are having a bad influence on you." Sirius grinned.

"Don't flatter yourself. And don't underestimate me. So, now that all four of us are awake… how about we get going?"

James jumped up immediately, holding out the cloak invitingly. Without the slightest hesitation, I joined him and stepped under the cloak with him. "Is it big enough to hide all four of us?"

"I think so… But we'll see in a minute, won't we? Peter, Sirius? You coming?" The two of them were still sitting on Sirius' bed, staring at the cloak in awe. "Go on! We don't have all night."

Sirius finally jumped into action and scrambled down of off his bed to join us. "God, this is so cool. I've heard about invisibility cloaks before but I've never actually seen one. How did your dad get it, James?"

James shrugged, grinning at him and holding the cloak up so Sirius could slip underneath it as well. "It's been in the family for ages. Family heirloom, I suppose. It's dead handy, that's what it is."

Sirius nodded enthusiastically while Peter finally came to join us as well. "Guys… I can't see you. Where are you?" He squealed in fright as Sirius' hand shot out from under the cloak at him. "God, this is so strange." I couldn't blame him. Random body parts floating in mid-air without any visible body attached to it… yep, definitely strange.

It was a lot more crowded under the cloak now that there were all four of us but the cloak covered all four of us easily.

"Ok… So what's the plan?" Peter's voice was trembling with excitement and nerves, as he chewed on his thumbnail anxiously.

"We just stroll about the castle a bit and see if we can find out anything about the Halloween Feast."

I gave Peter a reassuring smile and then we set off. It was a lot more difficult than one might expect, manoeuvring underneath an invisibility cloak when there were four of you. We practically had to walk in sync and as we made our way down the staircase towards the Gryffindor common room, there was a lot of jostling, bumping into each other and swearing. Luckily, everyone else seemed to be asleep as we actually managed to stumble and have the invisibility cloak tumble to the ground.

As we finally reached the portrait hole, I turned my head to look at the others. "We need to be more careful now, ok? No loud talking, no swearing and no stumbling over our own feet. I don't know about you but I am not too keen on landing myself in detention. Or getting caught by the caretaker…he sort of scares me."

"He is an odd bloke, that one." James agreed in a hushed voice while Sirius nodded vigorously and Peter shuddered at the thought of Argus Filch. "On second thoughts… he didn't get along with my mother, so bonus points for that. Let's give him a chance, shall we?" Sirius rubbed his chin in thought. "What was that she called him again?" Peter gave us a curious look. "Some funny word, I can't remember."

"A squib?" Peter nodded.

"It's like a Muggle-born, only the other way around." Peter looked even more confused at Sirius' attempt at an explanation. "What?"

"What Sirius meant was that a squib is somebody who has wizard parents but who does not have any magical powers of his or her own." James glanced back at the door to the stairwell and then looked at us. "Ready, lads?" As our nodes in reply, he pushed open the portrait hole, careful not to make any noise.

"Who's there?" All four of jumped at the sound of the Fat Lady's puzzled voice, even though we should have expected it, exchanging sheepish grins at our jumpiness. James raised his finger to his lips and we remained rooted to the spot for a second.

The Fat Lady's eyes roamed the dark hallway in front of her. "Hello?" Her voice sounded decidedly sleepy. After a moment's silence, she finally sighed and closed her eyes again. "Must have been dreaming."

We waited for another few seconds until we decided it was safe to move again and crept silently along the dark hallway.

"Just a quick question… how on earth are we supposed to get back inside Gryffindor Tower without her noticing?"

James sighed. "Good question, Remus. But let's worry about that later, right now we have a mission, don't we?"

"Are we headed in any particular direction?"

"God, Remus! Enough with the questions. We'll just walk for a bit and see where we end up. It's called being spontaneous… ever heard of it?" I could barely see James' face because of the darkness but I could tell that he was rolling his eyes.

"I'd prefer a plan, actually." Now that we were actually outside the portrait hole and roaming the hallway in the dark, I was beginning to have second thoughts. It was against the rules for students to be out of bed at this hour. I was only here at Hogwarts because of Dumbledore's big heart and because he had stuck up for me. What would he say if I got myself landed in detention for breaking the rules only a few weeks into the year? I really ought not to have come. What if we got caught… what if they would expel me? I was so happy here at Hogwarts… the happiest I had ever been, actually. I did not want to risk this.

"Remus, relax!" James had opened his mouth to reply but Sirius had been quicker and I could feel a hand on my shoulder, giving it a reassuring squeeze.

"I know you already think of me as a goody goody but I really really don't want to get into trouble or even worse… expelled." I winced at the slight panicky note that had crept into my voice.

"They won't expel us for being out after dark. If – and I repeat if – we indeed get caught, which is very unlikely as we are currently wearing an invisibility cloak, the worst we will get is detention and maybe points taken from Gryffindor. So stop worrying already." James elbowed me gently into the ribs.

I didn't reply, hoping he was right.

For quite some time we wandered the halls aimlessly in the dark. As we had only been here for a couple of weeks, we did not really know our way around the castle except for the usual routes we took in order to get down to the Great Hall and to our classrooms.

"Does anyone have a clue where we are?" Oh, good – I was obviously not the only who was feeling a bit lost.

"Nope, not me. Remus, Peter?"

"No idea."

"No." Just as James was about to reply, I hastily grabbed his arm and signalled frantically for us to stop. Shooting me a surprised look, James stopped. Sirius and Peter, who had obviously not seen my gesture because of the lack of light, bumped into us.

"Ow, what is it?"

"Shhh!" For a moment we just stood there, the sound of our breathing seemed eerily loud in the looming silence. As I had just convinced myself that I must have imagined it, I heard it again. Muffled voices and laughter from somewhere to the left of us.

"Do you hear that?"

"Yes", James breathed. "Let's get a bit closer, shall we?" Moving as silently as we could, we crept further along the hallway until we could see a streak of light from one of the doors at the end of it.

"I think it's McGonagall." Sirius' whisper made us halt and listen again. Yes, he was right, one of the voices did sound suspiciously like our Head of House.

"Who is she talking to?" Peter took another step forward curiously, nearly bumping into me again.

"I think it's Professor Flitwick… and the third one could be Professor Sprout?" I glanced at James questioningly, registering the look he exchanged with Sirius, both of them grinning broadly. As James turned around again, he looked at me. "Let's try to get a bit closer. I'm guessing we've found the staff room. Let's find out what our teachers like to do in their free time at this hour."

Before anyone could object, he moved forward with determination, the three of us hastily following him in order not to have the cloak slip of and reveal us in case one of the teachers decided that this would be a good time to leave the room.

As we came to a halt almost directly next to the door, all four of us seemed to hold our breath, listening intently.

"- do you think Hagrid will have them ready by now? It's not that long now."

"Yes and he's mentioned only yesterday that the pumpkins turned out even bigger than last year."

"Well then… then we are all set aren't we? We've got the pumpkins and the bats. Did Hagrid mention when he will be bring them into the Great Hall, Filius? Probably a few hours before the feast, am I right?"

"Yes, indeed. About two hours before the feast, so we should still have plenty of time to decorate."

"Let's only hope that that wretched Peeves does not pull a stunt like he did last year. We will have to make sure to keep him away from the feast."

"Agreed. I did not appreciate having a pumpkin thrown at my head. If you ask me, Peeves is getting more and more restless over the past few years. He's driving poor Argus mad with his stunts."

"Forgive me if I don't feel sympathy for 'poor' Argus right now, Filius. That man is driving ME mad."

"Are you still on about him screaming at you for entering his castle with clothes caked with mud? Well, in his defence… he had just been sweeping the floor. Muggle-style, which is a lot more strenuous."

A loud Hmmmph followed as a reply and there was a momentary silence.

Sirius was twitching behind us. "So there are going to be pumpkins and bats… We can do something with this, I am sure."

"Shh." This time it was actually James, who gave Sirius a stern look and motioned for him to be quiet, as the teachers had just started to resume their conversation.

"So… what do you think about our new first-years?" This was undoubtedly McGonagall's voice.

"Oh, I like them. A lively bunch, they are. I am quite fond of a number of them already. My Ravenclaws are still a bit shy but very sweet and polite. And I really like your Gryffindors, Minerva. Lovely lot you've got there."

"You think so?"

"Oh yes! And some of them seem to have a real knack for Charms. Miss Evans, for once. Very sweet girl and she has managed to master every single spell we have tried so far very quickly. As have Mr Potter, Black and Lupin."

"Oh yes, those three. And the fourth one, Mr Pettigrew. Honestly, I had been a bit worried about them turning out as the next generation of troublemakers but so far… except for cheekiness and insolence in class, Mr Black and Mr Potter certainly are experts at that, there don't seem to have been any other incidents."

"Yes, what a pity."

"Filius? You don't mean that, do you?" Professor McGonagall sounded positively incredulous.

"Oh, c'mon Minerva. You can try to deny it but we will know that you are lying – it is getting a bit boring without the Prewett brothers, isn't it?"

"I agree with Filius, Minerva. It has been getting a bit dull lately."

An evil cackle behind me made me turn my head. I could see Sirius' teeth gleaming in the darkness as he grinned at us. "Well, we'll make sure to change that, won't we? We need to defend our reputation as the next generation of troublemakers. They are practically begging for us to liven things up, aren't they?"

"Indeed, they are." James' voice held a hint of laughter. "I knew I liked Flitwick for a reason."

"Shhh, listen… It sounds like they are about to leave." I strained to hear our teachers' voices despite my friends' babble.

"Well, we'd better to bed now. My first class is at eight o'clock. Transfiguration with my Gryffindor first years. I'd better be fully awake in time for breakfast. I cannot take Black and Potter on an empty stomach." There was the sound of chairs moving and only a few seconds later, the door to the staff room swung open and Professor Sprout walked backwards out of it, laughing at Professor Flitwick who must have stumbled over his robes.

Exchanging glances with the others, we hastily retreated a few steps until we reached a niche on the left side of the hallway and pressed as flat as we could against the wall.

The three teachers strode right past us, Sprout and Flitwick first, arguing good-naturedly while Professor McGonagall was lagging a bit behind, riffling through a stack of papers she was holding. As they were almost next to us, I even held my breath. Our breathing sounded so traitorously loud. And indeed, Professor McGonagall did seem to have heard something as she glanced up and let her eyes roam the hallway.

"What is it, Minerva?" Professor Sprout, who has turned around, had noticed her colleague's behaviour and started to look around herself.

"I thought I had heard something. Must have imagined it, though." With a last look around, she shook her head and lowered her gaze to her notes again. Swearing at the lack of light, she whipped out her wand and muttered "Lumos".

We remained firmly rooted in place until all three of the teachers had disappeared around the corner and we could not hear their voices any more.

I release the breath I had been holding, feeling my whole body relax again. From the deep sigh next to me, I could tell that James had obviously been far more nervous than I would have guessed.

Now, though, he was back to his old cocky self. "Well, that went rather well, I'd say. We now know that the Halloween Feast is in the Great Hall and that there are pumpkins and bats involved."

"Whoop whoop, big surprise." I had actually not meant for the others to hear my snarky comment but as all three pairs of eyes shifted to me, it had obviously come out louder than intended.

"What?"

"Oh, c'mon James! As everything important seems to take place in the Great Hall, it was pretty obvious that the Feast would be there as well. Just like the Start-of-Term Feast was, wasn't it? And it's Halloween… pumpkins and bats are a given."

"They are?" Sirius sounded surprised.

"Yeah… at least from what I've heard. I've never actually attended a Halloween Feast myself but my Mom is always telling me about the Halloween parties she attended. Muggle parties, as she's a Muggle."

"Sounds great. The only kind of party my family knows involves fancy food and our best silver with the Black family crest on it." Sirius' voice had a bit of a wistful tinge to it, mixed with a bit of bitterness.

"Well, let's just keep walking for a bit." James pushed off the wall.

We did not get very far when Sirius suddenly hissed "Stop. I think I heard something." We came to an immediate stop, listening intently once again.

"Sounds like Filch" hissed James. "He seems to be coming straight in our direction."

"Quick, let's get over there, behind the statue." I gave James' shoulder a little push, gesturing towards a big statue to the left of us. We had only just managed to huddle behind it, as we could hear a wheezy muttering, which was steadily coming closer.

" – wretched poltergeist, who does he think he is. Oh, one day I'll make him pay, my sweet, you mark my words. Constantly getting on my nerves, wreaking havoc, making up dirty little songs. Disgusting creature, he is, isn't he, my sweet?"

"My sweet?!" Sirius scrunched up his nose, his eyebrows almost hitting his hairline. "Who in the ruddy hell is he talking to?" He threw up his arms in mock surrender as all three of us hissed a "Shhh"at him.

Filch did not seem to have heard anything, though. Finally, he came into view, dragging one foot behind him, a dark look on his face, illuminated by the weak moonlight coming in from a window directly across from him.

"At least the nasty little buggers are all in bed. Ah, the silence… it's pleasant, isn't it, my sweet?" He bent down and as our eyes followed his movement, we saw his cat slinking around his legs, rubbing her head against his left leg.

"Nasty little buggers… almost as bad as Peeves, aren't they. Always making noise, always making a mess." Filch sounded positively disgusted. "And Dumbledore just lets them. Detention… as if they care about detention. Whipping, now that would teach them a lesson!"

I exchanged an incredulous look with Sirius and James next to me while Peter had turned chalk white, staring at Filch with wide eyes.

"Well… Let's hope there will not be any other interruptions. We really should get some sleep now, my sweet." Filch raised himself into a upright position again and walked on, his left leg dragging behind him and his cat right there beside him, her eyes gleaming in the dark as she glanced from left to right, as if she was checking the hallway for anyone who ought not be there.

I held my breath as I saw her head turn into our direction, seeming to stare straight at us, sniffing. "What is it, my sweet?" Filch turned around and took in his surroundings, listening intently for a moment. Then he shrugged and looked at his cat. "There's no one there. Come along now, my sweet." Finally, the two of them disappeared out of sight, after Mrs Norris had given us one more suspicious look.

"Does the cloak not work on cats?" Peter sounded petrified.

"I suppose she must have smelled us. Petey, calm down, you're positively shaking." Sirius gently bumped his shoulder into Peter's in an attempt to distract him.

"Did you hear what he said? The thing about whipping students…" Peter's voice trailed off.

"Don't worry, Peter. There is absolutely no way Dumbledore or any of the other teachers would ever let Filch lay hand on us students." I gave him a brief smile but was still deeply disturbed by Argus Filch' behaviour.

"Why does he work here if he hates children so much?" James spoke aloud what I had been thinking.

Sirius shrugged. "No idea. But… do you remember what I said earlier about giving him a chance? On second thoughts… nope! Not after this charming display we just witnessed." Suddenly he snorted.

"'My sweet'. Good Lord, he was talking to that cat like one would to a lover."

"How do you know?" James elbowed him in the ribs with a broad grin, unfazed by Sirius' grimace.

I cleared my throat. "Maybe we really should get back to the dormitory now."

James glanced at me with a wry grin. "Uh, yeah, sure. If you know the way. Because I don't. I have absolutely no clue where we are."

Sighing I glanced around and then admitted in defeat. "Neither do I. Sirius, Peter, any ideas?" Both of them just shook their heads.

"But why would we go back now? Everyone has gone to bed – Filch, the teachers – the coast is clear." Sirius gave us a broad grin, spreading his arms dramatically. "Gentlemen, the castle is ours!" I simply rolled my eyes at this display, trying hard to hide my grin whereas James chuckled and Peter smiled.

"I actually agree with Remus. It will probably take us long enough to find our way back to Gryffindor Tower, anyway. And we still have to think of a plan to get past the Fat Lady." James gave Sirius an apologetic shrug as he scowled at him.

And indeed, it took us nearly forty-five minutes to find our way back, even though we managed to discover a nice short curt from the Great Hall to the Transfiguration classroom, and as we arrived in front of the portrait of the Fat Lady, she was snoozing peacefully, her head lolling on her shoulder.

"Any brilliant ideas?" James glanced around at all of us.

"Nope."

"How about we just wake her up and hope that she won't nag to Professor McGonagall?" Sirius yawned widely, running a hand through his hair. "I really am starting to feel tired."

"Do you think she will agree to keep it quiet?" Peter sounded quite nervous.

"Well, I guess we'll just have to try." Sirius shook his hair out of his and stepped out from under the cloak and forwards with determination.

"Giant Squid." He stared straight at the Fat Lady as he uttered the password but she did not even stir. Sirius cleared his throat and raised his voice a bit "Giant Squid." This time he had managed to wake her as her eyelids started to flutter and finally opened. The Fat Lady stared at Sirius with sleepy eyes and a bit of a dazed look.

"And just what are you doing out so late?"

Sirius gave her his most charming smile. "I couldn't sleep so I decided to go for a little walk."

One of her eyebrows raised. "So that was you earlier… How did you manage to sneak past me? Are you alone? Who else is there?"

Sirius hesitated for a moment but we had already thrown the cloak off and stepped behind him.

The Fat Lady's lips pulled up a bit. "Ah well… I should have known. An invisibility cloak, is it?"

James nodded. "Yes. But is there any chance you could keep that to yourself?"

The Fat Lady snorted. "Oh my dear little Mr Potter, the number of times your father snuck out of the portrait hole to raid the kitchens at night. And I never ratted him out, did I? So don't worry, your secrets safe with me."

"Thank you." Sirius beamed at her. "Now, we'd love to stay for a bit to chat but we are really tired, actually, so if you could let us in that would be great."

"Well… I can't." Sirius' smile slipped.

"What do you mean you can't?"

"What kind of a guardian would I be if I just let four first years slip off in the middle of the night without a proper punishment? You wanted to leave Gryffindor Tower so badly at this hour, now you will just have to spend the rest of the night outside it." If I didn't know any better, I'd say that she looked positively devious.

"You can't be serious!" James' sounded incredulous. Sirius gestured for him to shut up and let him take this. With a charming smile, he stepped a little bit closer to the portrait, smiling up at the Fat Lady whose eyebrows were almost hitting her hairline.

"You don't really mean that, do you? You wouldn't just leave us out here in the cold dark hallway?"

"Watch me."

"Oh, c'mon. Please. We only wanted to explore for a bit. You don't want us to fall ill, do you? It is mighty cold out here." Sirius stared up at her, his puppy dog eyes look firmly plastered on his face.

"Oh, honey, that look won't work on me but you keep trying. But right now, I want to go back to sleep." With that she closed her eyes again, attempting to go back to sleep.

Sirius put his hands on his lips, a look of determination replacing the puppy dog eyes. "Oh, yeah? You'll manage to get back to sleep much quicker if you just let us in. Just a friendly little reminder… if you really intend to keep us out here all night, you won't be much sleep either because I will spend the whole night right here in front of you, nagging you. Do you really want that?"

Her eyes flashed open again, glaring at Sirius. "All right, get in! But the next time I catch you out of Gryffindor Tower this late, you will sleep in the hallway, mark my words!" The portrait hole swung open and we got in. I turned around before the hole closed again and whispered a quick thank you in the direction of the Fat Lady. The only response I got was a grunt.


	12. Chapter 12 The Halloween Feast

Sirius

The Great Hall looked amazing every single evening but tonight… well, it was incredible. The teachers and everyone else had really done a great job. The ceiling transfigured to look like the sky was a deep midnight blue with stars already twinkling in it, there were even more candles floating in the air as there were usually and apart from the usual decorations, there was a multitude of enormous pumpkins and bats hovering decoratively in the air. It looked stunning. Andromeda had not been exaggerating.

Still, it was about to get even better. Even though the majority of the people present were not aware of it. As a matter of fact, the only ones that were, sat right there with me at his table, exchanging conspiratorial looks and bobbing up and down in barely concealed excitement.

"Welcome everyone to our annual Hogwarts Halloween Feast. As you can see, we have made some efforts with the decorations in order to make our Great Hall a little more festive. But I won't bore you with carrying this speech much further as I am sure you are craving the food prepared for you on this particular occasion. So… have fun and tuck in."

That was our cue. As Dumbledore had just raised his hands and was about to clap them, I exchanged a nod with Remus and James and the three of us all lifted our wands, which we had concealed under the table, and murmured a string of incantations.

Dumbledore froze, his hands only inches away from each other and glanced up in surprise as all the candles in the Great Hall suddenly went out and left everything in darkness, except for the faint light provided by the starry sky. Gasping and murmuring filled the Great Hall, students as well as teachers were giving each other questioning looks, staring around the Hall suspiciously or had fallen entirely silent.

Suddenly, there was another sound… the sound of music setting in. One by one everyone fell silent, glancing around the hall or at Dumbledore, who bore a mixture of puzzlement and amusement on his face. Grinning at Remus, I mouthed "One, two, three." Then we each gave another flick with our wands and murmured an incantation whereas James and Peter on the other side of the table did the very same.

Another collective gasp echoed throughout the Great Hall when a flash of light broke through the darkness, as all the pumpkins suddenly stated to glow. And what was more, both the pumpkins as well as the bats were no longer immobile, but moving, floating around in the air, sounds emanating from them. The pumpkins, who had had faces carved into them, were smirking or winking at the excited students and then suddenly, the opened their mouths and began to sing in loud and reverberating voices. After a few seconds, the bats joined in, their voices quite a bit higher than the pumpkins'.

Double, double, toil and trouble;

Fire bure and cauldron bubble.

Double, double, toil and trouble;

Something wicked this way comes!

Eye of newt and toe of frog,

Wool of bat and tongue of dog,

Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,

Lizard's leg and howlet's wing.

It really was a sight to behold – the darkness of the Great Hall with only the sky glowing above it – and the glowing pumpkins and black bats, who had formed a circle right in the middle of the Great Hall, above the heads of the students and were singing the song.

I had to admit that I might have had goose bumps. As I finally managed to tear my eyes away from the spectacle we had provided and turned to look at my friends, I realized that all four of us were beaming, really proud with our work. James was grinning so broadly it had to hurt his face, Peter had leaned forwards onto the table and was chewing on his lip with excitement, exchanging a smile with James now and then. And Remus… Remus' face was glowing even more than the pumpkins did, he looked positively delighted… and proud… proud he had managed to pull this off.

Nudging his side gently with my elbow, I gave him a wide smile and an appreciative nod. "Honestly, Remus. Amazing work you did there." He just shrugged, blushing a little.

"Hey, it was not just me. It was a team effort. But we really did great, didn't we?"

I nodded. The pumpkins and bats had just delivered a brilliant finish to their song, giving all of us one last big grin and then zoomed back into their original positions and went back to being immobile. After another swish of our wands, the candles caught fire again and the Great Hall was flooded with light once again. For a moment, there was silence and then a booming applause and cheering erupted from the mass of the students. Even most of the teachers joined in. Tiny Professor Flitwick was clapping his hands excitedly, laughing wholeheartedly and giving the four of us a wink. He at least seemed to suspect that we were the ones responsible. Professor Slughorn was clapping as well, nodding appreciatively whereas Professors McGonagall and Sprout were exchanging smiles, shaking their heads but never the less, clapping enthusiastically.

And Professor Dumbledore… He laughed and clapped loudest of all. As the noise died down a bit, he raised his eyes to look at the sea of students in front of him.

"Does anyone wish to claim responsibility for this elaborate prank?" Exchanging a quick glance with James, ignoring the warning look Remus gave us, I winked at him and then got to my feet.

"Yes. We do." I could hear the sound of James' chair being pushed backwards, as he got up as well, still beaming. "Did you like our work, Professor?"

"Oh yes, as a matter of fact I did. So it was only the two of you, Mr Black, Mr Potter?"

Not really sure what to say and whether we were in trouble, I glanced first at James and then at Remus and Peter in question. Then my gaze jumped back to Remus as I had seen him move out of the corner of my eye. Giving me a dark look, he got to his feet as well without a word and stepped right next to James and me. Beaming, I nudged his arm gently with a broad grin, forming the words "Way to go, Remus" soundlessly. He only rolled his eyes at me and then looked at Dumbledore with a look of anxiety mingling with pride.

Then finally, I could hear someone else move behind us and then Peter stepped next to us, hesitantly, his eyes firmly fixed on the ground.

"So… the four of you." Dumbledore sounded positively delighted whereas McGonagall on the right of him at the staff table was shaking her head, obviously not sure whether to glare or laugh at us.

All four of us nodded. Whereas James and I were both beaming, happy to feel all the eyes on us, Remus and Peter both seemed uncomfortable and twitchy.

"Well… well, I must say, I am impressed. That was very advanced magic you used there. Magic far beyond the capabilities of the average first year. How on earth did you manage?"

Our eyes shifted to Remus, whose own eyes had grown wide and panicky at our reaction and who now gave me a pleading look. Trying to help him out of having to talk in front of everyone, as he was clearly not comfortable being the centre of attention, I decided to answer for him.

"Let's just say that we spent quite a bit of time doing research and practicing. But I guess the effort was worth it, don't you agree, Professor Dumbledore?"

"As a matter of fact, I do, Mr Black. It was a lovely idea and I can't help but admire both your creativity and your application of OWL level magic. As this truly is an incredible achievement for a first year, you will receive 50 points for Gryffindor… Each."

Gasping, I spun around and exchanged an excited look with the other three, all of us beaming. 200 points for Gryffindor. As our fellow Gryffindors all started cheering and clapping, quite a few people over at the Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw tables joined the applause. And… one person at the Slytherin table as well. Andromeda had jumped to her feet, laughing and shaking her head while she applauded loudly, giving me a grin and a thumbs-up. She didn't even seem to notice the other Slytherins, who were all glaring at her in disgust. Her sisters, in particular. Whereas Narcissa shook her head in disdain, Bellatrix looked positively murderous as she grabbed her little sister's sleeve and tugged violently. As Andie simply shook off her hand and continued to clap, Bellatrix' lips pulled into a snarl and she shot a nasty look at me.

Instead of cowering under her withering gaze, though, I gave her a broad grin and mock-bowed, pulling off my imaginary hat. As my eyes rose to meet hers again, I had a really hard time to suppress my laughter, as she looked about ready to burst with anger.

She'd probably make me regret this someday. But right now, I didn't care. Right now, all I cared about was the joy I felt at having all those people laughing at us, applauding us and to be able to share such a wonderful moment of triumph with my friends. Right now, I could tell that most of the people at the Great Hall didn't think of me as that Black boy who had ended up in Gryffindor. Right now, I was Sirius, one of those four first years responsible for the elaborate prank we had just pulled, which had earned our house 200 points. Right now, as I looked at the bright beaming faces of my friends right next to me, life was good.


	13. Chapter 13 The End of the Year

Remus:

Neither of the four of us had gotten much sleep that night. After the feast itself, the festivities had continued in the Gryffindor common room and once again, we had found ourselves the centre of attention because of our prank.

I had to admit, I was quite proud to have managed to pull it all off and that it had actually been my idea in the first place. It had been quite a lot of work and had involved quite a bit of extensive study at the library, poring over countless spell books and then hours of practice for us to get the hang of the very advanced magic needed for it. The task of research had mainly fallen to me, as I, as Sirius had put it so eloquently "spent most of my spare time poring over old dusty books anyway" and as I was the only one to willingly step foot into the library.

The one time the other three had actually decided to accompany me there, Sirius and James had gotten themselves kicked out by the librarian, Madam Pince, for nearly setting fire to one of the library books with an improperly executed spell. She had chased them out of the library herself, screaming bloody murder and whacking them over the head with James' schoolbag repeatedly. This incident had caused them to steer clear of the library ever since.

Despite my friendship with those two "hooligans without any respect for books that dated back several centuries", Madam Pince didn't seem to mind me much and mostly just left me alone.

But after several days, I had found what I had been looking for and so we had been able to start practising. To our surprise, James, Sirius and me had been able to master the spells quite quickly, after a few minor mishaps involving Sirius dousing me in a fountain of ice-cold water, but Peter had had a rather hard time of it. As he was struggling even with the simple spells we dealt with in class, it had taken quite a bit of time and combined help from all three of us, but in the end, Peter had managed to master the spells as well.

The morning after the Halloween feast was a Saturday but instead of sleeping in, James and Sirius had been up at the crack of dawn, still hyped up from all the adrenaline and their joy about the success we had had. It definitely did not count among my favourite things to do on a Saturday morning to lie in bed while still half asleep and having to listen to two of your friends singing loudly and falsely "200 points to Gryffindor. 200 points to Gryffindor" and their constant imitations of Dumbledore's compliment directed at us.

Finally, I had had enough. Once again, it was not that long until the next full moon, I had barely slept and the first hints of the usual crabbiness occurring in the week before the full moon was setting in. Groaning, I pushed back my blanket and went to go over to the bathroom, rolling my eyes at James and Sirius as I had finished with my morning routine, who had now progressed to imitating the pumpkins and bats while singing Double Double Toil and Trouble.

"If anyone needs me, I'm at the library." I straightened the hangings on my bed and then bent down to retrieve my bag.

"You're what?" James' shout made me glance up. The two of them had stopped singing and were now staring at me, incredulous.

"I said I'm going to the library."

"What for? It's Saturday, Rem! Time to relax! Time to have fun!" Sirius brushed back his black hair and grinned at me.

"Uh, yeah, if your definition of fun is having to listen to your friends' awful singing, then yeah."

"Oh, c'mon, we'll stop. But stay!" Sirius was giving me the puppy dog eyes again. He really pulled the look off.

"No, by all means, carry on. I had planned to spend the morning at the library anyway while I was doing research for our prank I noticed quite a few books which seemed interesting. So, you know where to find to me. I'll see you at lunch." With a smile, I gave them a wave, left the dormitory and made my way towards the library.

As most of the students were still asleep, the castle was very quiet and practically deserted yet. The first rays of sunshine fell in through the windows and I could feel my mood lightening. Smiling, I walked towards the library, looking forward to spending a quiet day poring over books. As much as I loved my friends, I didn't get much reading done in our dormitory. And every now and then, I just needed some time for myself, curled up with a good book. I loved to be here at Hogwarts and I loved having friends even more but I had spent most of my life pretty much in isolation with solely my parents as company. I was not yet used to have people surrounding me all the time and sometimes, I just needed a little break.

As I quietly pushed open to the door to the library, I gave Madam Pince, who had looked up at the sound of the door opening, a beaming smile and whispered "Good morning" in her direction before going straight over to the bookshelves, trying to find the books I was looking for.

I was not the first one to come to the library today, though. As I reached the end of first row of shelves and turned a corner, I nearly walked into somebody.

"Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't see you there."

"It's quite all right." The girl, who had just been standing on her tiptoes, trying to reach a book from one of the upper shelves, turned around to give me a smile, which immediately slipped off her lips when her eyes took me in. Long dark red hair, bright green eyes. Lily Evans.

"Oh, it's you." She crossed her arms over her chest defiantly, her eyes fixed on mine. "Where are your friends?" I had been having a bad conscience about the way the others had treated Lily and Severus for weeks. Well, at least regarding Lily, I couldn't really get myself to feel bad for Severus after having hexed Sirius, making him fall off his chair. He could have gotten seriously hurt.

"Up in the dormitory, I'm on my own today. And don't worry, I doubt they will be joining me any time soon, from what I gathered they seemed to consider the idea of spending a Saturday morning in the library a sacrilege." I gave her a friendly smile and glanced at the bookshelf. "Which book do you need?"

"That red one over there. But it's ok, I'll manage."

Ignoring that last comment, I stood on my tiptoes as well and reached up, managing to get the book easily as I was about a head taller than Lily.

"Here you go."

Lily seemed a bit surprised but took the book with a grateful smile anyway. But I noted the curious look she gave me, obviously unsure what to think.

"Look, I'm sorry for what happened at the lake. Sirius and James should not have done that, they only wanted a laugh but I admit that they went a bit far."

"They did. But I admit, Severus hexing Black's chair was not exactly fair play, either."

Spotting one of the books I had been looking for only a few steps away, I went to get it, turning my head to smile at her.

"So, no bad blood between the two of us? I don't like people being mad at me."

"That makes two of us. Yeah, no bad blood, don't worry."

Relieved at her answer and the smile that accompanied it, I gave her a little wave and then went to settle down at one of the desks in the sitting area of the library. With a sigh, I got comfortable and opened the book.

"Mind if I sit here?" Surprised, I glanced up at Lily, who had joined me at the desk, pointing at the chair opposite me.

"Not at all." I must admit, I was a bit surprised that she had followed me as she had always seemed pretty disgusted with the four of us until now.

"So, you are Remus, right?" At my nod, she smiled, seeming a bit embarrassed. "Ah, good, I wasn't sure whether you were Remus or Peter. The four of you always seem to travel in a pack and somehow, Potter and Black always seem to be the ones in the centre of attention, so it's mostly their names you hear. I'm Lily."

"I know." After that, the two of us just focused on our respective books but it felt strained somehow. As I gave her a quick look over the top of my book, I saw her biting down onto her bottom lip, seeming a bit nervous.

Noticing my gaze, her eyes met mine and she smiled sheepishly.

"I wanted to apologise, too. I guess you must have thought I was so weird on the train. Coming into your compartment, not talking to anybody, just staring outside of the window. And well, I guess I overreacted a little bit, Severus was not really on his best behaviour, either."

"Don't worry about it." She seemed a bit unsure, so I set my book down and smiled at her. "I'm serious. Don't worry about it. We did notice that you seemed to be a bit upset but we didn't think you were weird or anything. And honestly, we were all on edge that day with the Sorting and everything ahead."

That seemed to cheer her up a bit. "Ok, good."

This time, the silence felt way more comfortable and for quite some time, the two of us just sat there in companionable silence, reading our respective books. I had no idea for quite just how long we sat there but it must have been quite a while.

I was so absorbed in the book that I didn't even notice that Lily had stopped reading for a minute. Then suddenly, as I turned the page, I looked up and found her staring off into space with a sad expression on her face.

"Lily? Hey, Lily?" Startled, she briefly shook her head and then looked at me questioningly, her eyes still a tad unfocused.

"Yes?"

"Are you ok?" I looked at her more closely, noting that her eyes seemed to be glittering suspiciously.

Obviously trying to opt for nonchalance, Lily shook out her long red mane and gave me a smile. "Yeah."

"Are you sure?"

She opened her mouth and then closed it again, staring at the tabletop. Then she started shaking her head, first slowly and then more quickly. "No. No, I'm not ok."

"Do you want to talk about it?" Lily gave me an inscrutable look, bit down onto her bottom lip and dropped her gaze again, running her fingers over the cover of the book lying in front of her.

"It's my sister, you know." I remained silent, just waiting for her to continue.

"She's not happy about me being a witch. She hates it. At first, I thought that she was scared of me and thought I was some kind of freak but a few weeks before my departure, Sev and I found a letter. A letter addressed to Tuney, from Dumbledore. Turns out she has been writing for him, begging him to let her come to Hogwarts, too. She hates me. She hates me for being a witch. Ever since Severus told me I was a witch, she has been so cold, so reserved with me. And it got even worse after the letter arrived. We used to get along well before all of that. I miss her. I really miss her. That's why I was so upset on the train. She had come along to King's Cross and just before I left, I had been fighting with her. It got pretty ugly."

Tears were glistening in her eyes again but, too stubborn to cry, she shook her head determinedly and closed her eyes for a moment.

"Give her some time. Maybe she just needs to get used to the thought. And I'm sure she doesn't hate you."

Lily opened her eyes again and gave me a weak smile. "You think so?"

I nodded. "I do."

Lily glanced down at her book thoughtfully. "I hope so. I really do."

Trying to think of something to do that would cheer her up, I glanced at Madam Pince at the librarian's desk to check if she was watching and she was currently busy talking to another student – or rather tearing him apart for some offence or another – I grabbed my bag and pulled a bar of half-eaten chocolate out of it.

"You want some chocolate? It might not help your situation with your sister but it might cheer you up a bit? But you have to be quick. If Madam Pince sees us with chocolate anywhere near her precious books, she will skin us alive."

The corners of Lily's lips pulled up a bit and she reached out to break off a piece of chocolate. "Thank you."

Casting another look at Madam Pince, I shoved some chocolate into my mouth as well and then quickly dropped it back into my bag.

"Why are you friends with those boys, anyway? You're nice, much nicer than I thought. Why would you be friends with those idiots?"

"They're not as bad as you think. They are really great, actually." I could feel my lips pulling into a smile as I thought of my friends. "I've only known them for a couple of weeks but I love them already. They can be idiots at times but who isn't? Yes, sometimes I just want to slap Sirius for his annoying habit of needing to wake everybody else up the moment he is awake, even if it is 6 o'clock in the morning and for his atrocious singing in the shower. Yes, sometimes I want to kill him and James for not keeping their big mouths shut in class and James for calling me a goody-goody all the time just because I actually care about not getting in detention or other trouble. But they are really great people. A couple of weeks, my mum got really ill and I had to leave school for a couple of days to be with here. When I returned, the guys were really there for me. And they had taken notes in every single class for me, so I wouldn't have any trouble in catching up. Imagine that! Sirius and James taking notes" I huffed a laugh at the though and shook my head, dwelling on the thought for a few moments, feeling a huge wave of affection for my friends.

When I looked up to meet Lily's eyes again, I noticed that her gaze had softened. "You really are fond of them, aren't you?"

"You have no idea. I've never had friends before coming to Hogwarts and now I have four of them. And whatever you may think about them, they are brilliant."

Lily opened her mouth to say something else, when we were interrupted.

"There you are; I've been looking for you. What are doing talking to him?" Severus had appeared at our table, looking down at the two of us with a distinctly suspicious expression on his face. Lily's face brightened at the sight of him and she gave him a beaming smile, gesturing for him to join us.

"Hey Sev! Come join us. And stop scowling, Remus is not that bad, he's really nice actually."

Severus's expression told me that he clearly doubted that. Still scowling, he gave me a disdainful look, which turned considerably softer when he turned to look at Lily again. "It's time for lunch, actually."

Lily's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Is it? Already?" Hastily she jumped up and went to return her book, leaving the two of us alone at the table.

I couldn't help it. Whereas Lily was really easy to talk to, I felt uncomfortable under Severus' withering stare. For some reason, I had the feeling that he really hated me without having ever really talked to me at all. Well, I guess I couldn't blame him, I had not exactly done anything to stop James and Sirius from tipping their boat or from teasing him during Potions class but it was not like I had ever done anything to him, myself. Whatever the reason, I felt really really uncomfortable and had no idea what to say to him, so I just stayed silent and kept on reading my book until Lily returned.

"Ok, I'm done. Remus, aren't you coming?" Before I could answer, though, I could hear Severus groan in annoyance, making both Lily and me look at him in surprise. His eyes were fixed on something over my shoulder and as I turned around to follow his gaze, my eyes fell on Sirius, who just made his way over to our table.

"It's nearly lunch time. And don't even think about skipping lunch because I won't let you." Sirius flopped down onto the chair next to me. "Evans, Snivellus." He gave both of them a curt nod, grinning at Severus' glare.

"I wasn't going to skip lunch. Hang on, I just need to return my – What's that?" I gave the letter in Sirius' hand a curious look.

With a sigh, he held it out to me. "McGonagall wanted me to give you this as you missed the owl post at breakfast."

I could feel my stomach plummeting as I opened the letter, containing coded instructions on the proceedings planned for the next full moon. All the letter read was: _Same time, same place, same story_.

"Thanks, Sirius." I folded the letter and put it into my pocket, feeling my friends' eyes on mine, as well as Lily and Severus' curious looks. As I looked up, my eyes met Sirius' and I saw the concern in them.

"Is everything all right?"

Deciding to jump right into character, I just shrugged, deciding to make use of the gloomy expression that was sure to be on my face right now. "Not really. It's from my Dad. Mum's sick again."

Sirius' eyebrows raised and he blanched. "Again? Is it serious?"

Another shrug. "I don't know. He didn't say much." Of course I had been aware that the full moon was coming closer but whenever I was with my friends, planning pranks and having fun, it became easier to push those thoughts back into the dark recesses of my mind. But now that I had received the letter with the instructions, I could feel myself slipping back into moodiness. Yes, I didn't feel as bad as I had last time… yet. Maybe this was a good sign, maybe the transformation wouldn't be as bad this time.

"Rem. It'll be ok. She'll be better soon. Don't worry." Sirius clapped a hand onto my shoulder and smiled at me.

"I hope you're right." I dropped my gaze onto my book. God, I was such a bad person to lie to them. They were so sweet and caring while I was deliberately lying to them.

"What's wrong with your Mum?" I hadn't even noticed that Lily and Severus were still standing there, both of them looking at me. Lily with a concerned expression, Severus merely curious.

Sirius answered for me, not taking his eyes off me. "We don't know any details but his Mum fell sick last month and it seemed to be serious. He even had to leave school for a couple of days. Apparently, her illness is back now."

"Oh dear. What's wrong with her, Remus?"

"I don't want to talk about it." I winced at the harshness in my voice and looked up at Lily apologetically. "Sorry, I didn't mean to snap at you. I just … don't want to talk about it, ok?"

Lily nodded, her eyes filled with worry. I saw her exchange a quick look with Sirius, who got to his feet and gave me a gentle push.

"Come on, let's return your book and then go down to the Great Hall. You must be starving since you idiot decided to miss breakfast to come here instead."

This full moon was fairly uneventful. I had not felt nearly as bad as the last time the days before it and the transformation had been a bit easier. All in all, it had went rather well. My friends had believed the story about my sick mother and had been sympathetic, I had not scratched myself up too bad and had been able to leave the hospital wing the afternoon after the full moon.

Unfortunately, the next full moon was during the Christmas holidays and after a long discussion with Professor Dumbledore, I had decided to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays. I had never spent Christmas without my parents and was sad to miss out on an opportunity to see them since I missed them very much. But I had to admit that Professor Dumbledore was right. Here at Hogwart, Madam Pomfrey would be able to tend to my injuries immediately and my current refuge – or prison – here at Hogwarts was safer than the shack at home.

And maybe the fact that I was staying as well would cheer Sirius up a bit. As Christmas was approaching, everyone was constantly talking about the holidays, putting a definite damper on the usually so cheerful Sirius' mood. He, of course, would stay here at Hogwarts since his mother had told him very explicitly that he was not welcome at home and had even sent him a letter a couple of days ago. All that it said was "Just a reminder that you are to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays."

I smiled at the Fat Lady as I entered the portrait hole and then let my gaze roam the Common Room. The whole castle was already looking very Christmas-y, decorated with lots of baubles and mistletoes, the Gryffindor Common Room no exception. Spotting my friends in a couple of armchairs near the fire, I made my way over to them.

As I approached them, I could hear James' voice. " – and my mother makes the best Christmas cookies ever. I swear; they are the best. I'll try to bring some along for you after the holidays. And my parents wrote to tell me we might be going skiing. Oh, hey Remus." Peter and James both turned to smile at me whereas Sirius just gave me a gloomy nod, wrapping a loose thread around his finger with a dark look on his face.

"Hey you guys." I dropped down next to Sirius, on the armrest of his chair. "Discussing your plans for the holidays again, James? I swear there is no other topic lately."

James shrugged. "Well, everyone is looking forward to the holidays." Sirius uttered a little snort at that, making James glance at him with a sympathetic look on his face. "Well, nearly everyone. Hey, Remus, what about you? Do you have anything special planned?"

I shook my head. "No. As a matter of fact – hey, Sirius, are you listening?" I poked him with an elbow, receiving only another grunt in answer. "So, as I was saying, I don't have anything special planned because I'm actually going to stay here as well."

That managed to get Sirius' attention. His head snapped up and he stared at me, incredulously. "You're staying? Why's that?"

I shrugged, staring at my hands. "Mum had to go to St. Mungos and she will probably have to stay there for a couple of weeks. Dad is staying in London to be close to her and well, I talked to him and we decided that I'd better stay here." And there I went again, lying to my friends, telling them some cock and bull story.

"Oh God, Remus. I'm so sorry." Peter reached out a hand to pat my arm, his eyes filled with sympathy.

"But the doctors at Mungo's are really good. Just wait, Remus, you're Mum will be better in no time." James gave me a reassuring smile.

"I'm sorry about your Mum, too and that you can't spend Christmas at home with your parents. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't happy you're staying as well." Sirius bumped my shoulder with his.

"Hey, you know what?" All our gazes jumped to James, who had hunched forward in excitement, a beaming smile on his face. "How about I'll leave my Invisibility Cloak here with you? The school should be pretty much deserted; you can go on another expedition through the castle. Maybe you could think of a few new pranks."

Sirius' eyes lit up at that idea. "Really? You'd let us borrow your cloak?"

James shrugged. "Sure. If you promise to take good care of it? Remus, I'm leaving you in charge, though. Don't look at me like that, Sirius. You spent two and half hours yesterday, looking for your star chart."

"But I found it, didn't I?"

"Yes, you did but I'm still at a loss as what on earth that star chart was doing in the bathroom cabinet."

Sirius mumbled something unintelligible under this breath and pouted. James just grinned and then turned to look at me. "So, you'll be in charge of the cloak and… just try to stop Sirius if he decided to burn down our dormitory."

"OI! I'd never do such a thing."

Raising my eyebrows, I turned my head to face him. "Really? Really? You nearly managed to yesterday when you were chasing that spider."

"Don't you dare take James's side! You're supposed to be on my side. And that spider had it coming!"

"Can we please stop talking about the spider?" James shuddered. As we had discovered the day before, James hated spiders and would exit any room screaming bloody murder after setting eyes on a spider, no matter how big. I had just been on my way to the dormitory, when its door had flown open, nearly smacking me in the face and a panicked James, screaming at the top of his lungs, had dashed past me. He had shouted something, which had sounded suspiciously like "Don't go in there. Enemy in there", my way without even bothering to stop. From within the room, I had heard Sirius laughing like a maniac and shouting spells. Just another normal afternoon in our dormitory.

Sirius and I exchanged cheeky grins, making James scowl even harder. "All right, all right, go ahead mock me. Just promise me you'll have a great Christmas here at Hogwarts, all right?" He smiled at the two of us.

Sirius slung his arm around my shoulder and gave James a lazy thumbs up. "You know us, Jamie. We will make sure it won't get dull around here with you lot gone."


End file.
